


Once Upon a Winter's Crest

by inadistantworld



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Anastasia, Ballroom Dancing, Briarwood Arc, Con Artists, Dark Magic, F/M, Happy Ending, Inspired by Anastasia (1997), Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-07 03:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14662734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inadistantworld/pseuds/inadistantworld
Summary: The last night of the Winter's Crest Festival goes by in a blur. Percy gives his sister a gift, a servant's twin children help out around the castle for spending money, the castle is flooded with visiting nobles and strangers. Two people are missing though, well, not missing. They've been taken off the guest list entirely.Lord and Lady Briarwood are not people who take slights such as that so easily. And on the final day of the festival, when the ball is in full swing, the Briarwoods storm in and slaughter the family.All but two.Cassandra and Percival de Rolo are rescued by the twins, Vex'ahlia and Vax'ildan, before they can be found. The two young royals, the only remaining heirs to the de Rolo name, run to the train that runs across the river. And while Cassandra manages to get on and begin her trip to Emon, Percival falls unconscious after a fall.When he wakes the next day the boy has no memory of who he is, only a gut feeling that he has to go to Emon.It's years before the twins, now professional con artists, stumble upon a young man with white hair looking to go to Emon that they decide to present as the long lost lord for reward money.It's the Anastasia AU no one asked for





	1. Once Upon a Winter's Crest

**Author's Note:**

> Quick notes, I have 11.5 chapters of this finished and the last few blocked out, I decided to do something different and get almost to the end before I started posting this, so I'm gonna try and upload one a day until the end and it shouldn't be an issue. So if you want to read it all in one go, wait two weeks, but also I like immediate feedback and validation so I won't turn you away.  
> ALSO the chapter titles are titles of songs in the movie and the Broadway musical that I really enjoy and think fit the chapter pretty well, so if you want something to listen to I will always suggest either Anastasia soundtrack because they're amazing and if you haven't hear the Broadway one yet it has some very good songs in it that aren't in the movie.  
> (PS, for the narrative I had to make Whitestone the capital of Wildemount, but don't act like you came to an Anastasia AU for canon anything, my friends, we're just here to have a good time).

The biggest event of the year was the de Rolo Winter’s Crest festival. It was an extreme honor to be invited to it, an entire week of feasting and hunting and other very noble activities, all cumulating in a ball. To be removed from the guest list would all but destroy someone’s social standing. The Briarwoods were on the very short list of people who had ever been removed from the invitees, and while the de Rolos were extremely private about their reasons why, the rest of the Wildemount put their faith in their decision and followed suit.

Despite the many turns and changes of the elite, Elaina had better things to do than concern herself with it. She was one of the many people who worked in the castle, she was a seamstress and even final day of the festival, with a feast and a ball at the end of the night, she was busy. In fact, it was her busiest day of the entire year. People would come to her with torn clothes, wrinkled dresses, requesting something entirely new after realizing what they had brought was not in season any longer. Elaina was never busier than the last night of the Winter Crest festival. And she still had two children to look after.

She brought her twins to the castle with her. They were filled with trouble like all twelve-year-olds often are, and the entire city benefited from them being close by for her to watch. But they also liked to help and she wouldn’t turn down someone willing to bring her tools and fabric when she asked. But when they grew tired of fabric and sewing they would help other servants of the castle, lighting fireplaces and making beds, and in return Elaina would give them spending money. It was no wonder that all week they had scurried around on their best behavior, they saved up for months to spend money on different things in the market on Winter’s Crest.

Elaina was grateful they were all so busy, it left her no time to think about Syldor. Syldor was one of the visiting nobles, and, after one night long ago, the father of her children. Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia didn’t seem to care one way or another about him, thy had only met him once or twice. Despite fathering two children with her he had been very forthright about his view of her and others like her. Lowly peasants not worth his time. Elaina did her best to keep her children from being around that kind of thinking. She knew they were worth just as much if not more than many of those who thought like that.

Her children were helping one of the others with their job on the day of the ball. There just didn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get all of the work done, but they were going to do their best. The de Rolos were a good family, better than most would be in their position, and that was why Elaina was taking her time in making sure Cassandra de Rolo’s dress was perfect. Her mother had come in to look at it and kindly suggested a few changes. She did it the way a mother would, not the way a Lady would, and Elaina liked that about Lady de Rolo.

Hanging up on the other side of the room was Percival’s suit. The boy, only 13, was always locked away in an office his father had given him to work on little tinkering projects. While that was nice, children should have more hobbies that causing trouble, it meant he usually had greasy hands or snags on his clothes. So Elaina had kept his clothes here until he needed to get ready.

The de Rolo twins, Whitney and Oliver, also had their clothes for the party in the room with Elaina. Not because they tinkered but because they were likely rolling in the mud somewhere right now and tracking it through the house and should definitely not be wearing their good clothes yet.

There is only one thing of true interest to this story that happened before the ball that night.

Before dinner Percival de Rolo left his workshop earlier than anyone expected and found his youngest sibling, Cassandra watching one of the other young noble girls playing piano with the most bored expression he had ever seen. “Cass,” he whispered from the door and waved her over to him.

She looked about quickly to make sure she would slip away unnoticed and slowly, confidently, walked out to meet her brother in the hall. “What are you doing? You said you were working on something _all day_ today.”

Percy smiled and pulled his hands out from behind his back to show a small box wrapped in red paper. “I just finished. It’s a Winter’s Crest present for you.”

Her reaction was exactly what Percy had hoped for. A huge smile broke out across her face and she clapped her hands together and bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly. “Did you make it for me?” She asked. That had been what she wanted from him this year, something nobody else would ever have.

“Open it and find out,” he replied and gave her the box.

She tore the paper open and let it float to the ground. And when she opened the box she saw a small, round, silver container with sapphires and the Whitestone Crest on the top. Cassandra took it out of the box and Percy took the box from her so she could look at it closely. She turned it over in her hands. She tried to open it but it refused to budge. And then Percy held out a necklace with a small key. He showed he a small, barely noticeable hole for the key and when he turned the key inside the top opened and it began to play the soft music that their mother had sung to him when he was a child and still sang to Cassandra on nights when she woke from nightmares.

He then reached into his shirt and pulled out a matching key, “Only you and I will ever have the key to it. There is no music box exactly like this one in the world and I will never make another one, so you will be the only one who will have it.”

“Oh Percy! I love it!” She giggled and threw her arms around her brother and hugged him tightly.

Percy laughed and hugged her back. Then he pointed back to the music room, “But you should go back, I’m sure they will miss you. I have to go get ready but I’ll see you at dinner. And make sure you keep your music box a secret, I don’t want everyone asking for one like it.”

 

And until after the feast there was nothing noteworthy that happened. It was the same as all other Winter Crest’s before this one. Perhaps the only thing would be that Vax and Vex were now shirking their duties and just exploring the castle and its secret passages while avoiding work. Their mother had to stay late through the dinner which meant they weren’t going to spend their hard-earned money until the next day. So they were considering mischief but hadn’t committed to any yet.

They were not in the ballroom, they were a servant’s children and weren’t allowed near it.

Percival and Cassandra were meant to be in the ballroom with the rest of their family, but they were not. They were in Percy’s workroom and he was showing her some of the sketches and pieces of the music box. He didn’t normally let her in but she was getting very bored and the rest of his family was so busy mingling and gracefully moving about and hosting a party (or in the case of the twins causing little pieces of mayhem), so Percy snuck his sister out of the room before she fell asleep at a table somewhere.

But sound carried in this castle and the screams from the ballroom could be heard in Percy’s workshop on the same floor.

It took a moment to register, at first Percy believed it may have been from the fireworks show. It was supposed to be later but he thought his family may have started it early. But it was not cheers, it was sounds of horror. And then Cassandra grabbed his hand and he looked at her and saw fear in her eyes.

They didn’t say anything, they just ran. The ran back to the ballroom where the screams were coming from, where their family was. And when they burst through the door the sight would have been straight from a nightmare if Percy and Cassandra could imagine such terrible things.

In the center of the room a tall couple in elegant clothes with dark hair danced like nothing was happening. They twirled between still bodies on the floor, they swayed to music that no longer played or perhaps it was to the melody of cries for help. They danced so beautifully and so gracefully that it was almost easy to miss the blood that coated the hands that were laced together and the dark stains on their clothes. People scrambled for the doors, pushing each other down. And the tall man dipped the lady in his arms and she lazily pointed a finger in a random direction and the room vibrated as a small ball of fire flew from her fingertips and landed on the fringes of the pulsing mass of people.

And Percy was frozen as he watched them dance.

They looked like they were in love, he thought. Like his parents.

Cass was still holding his hand and she gave it a tug and started to whisper something to him, but Percy already saw it.

That was his mother’s dress. And his father’s ring on that hand. And Julius’s glasses that were broken on the floor. And those were the earrings their mother had given Vesper. And Oliver and Whitney’s suits matched, they both demanded they have coattails despite them starting to go out of fashion. And Ludwig, Ludwig was the only one lying face up. Percy didn’t look at him long. He felt somewhere deep down that he was going to be sick but he was too far gone to really think about that.

And then someone grabbed his shoulder, “ _Come on_!” Someone growled in his ear and pulled him roughly back out the doorway they were standing in. “They’re looking for you!”

Percy didn’t want to go, he kept looking over his shoulder to his family lying at the feet of the couple. He tried to fight against the hands that pulled him but couldn’t seem to find the strength. And when he looked ahead to say something to the one who pulled him he thought he was seeing double.

There were two kids, maybe a year or two younger than him, both with dark hair that fell to their shoulders and angular faces for being so young. They wore plain clothes with soot stains and the one who had grabbed him had oddly rough hands. Servant kids, Percy suspected.

One of them, a girl perhaps, carried Cassandra as best she could. Cassandra just stared back at the doorway they were leaving behind. Her eyes were glassy, and she looked so far away that if Percy wasn’t just as lost he would have wondered if he would ever reach her again.

They ran back towards the office Percy’s father had given him and as they were passing the door to it Cassandra suddenly tore her way out of the girl’s hands. She ran to the door saying, “My Winter’s Crest present!” And Percy ran after her, leaving the twins standing in the hall.

“Leave it!” The boy yelled.

“Vax, quiet!” The girl hissed and looked over her shoulder. “I don’t know where those guys went.”

“We should just leave them,” the boy said as Cassandra grabbed the music box and ran back out to the hall with Percy hot on her heels.

“Don’t say that,” the girl snapped and waved for them to follow her down the hall again.

They ran to a sitting room with a fireplace on one side. There were no other entrances or exits to the room other than a few closed, and likely locked, windows. And Percy’s heart sank. They had turned them in. They had led them to a room they couldn’t escape from until the couple came to find them.

And then the boy pressed his hands against the wall and a portion swung inwards. He waved at them, “Go already!” and the girl started pushing them towards it.

“You have to get out of here!” She said and pushed the boy with dark brown hair into the hole in the wall and then started moving Cassandra to it.

“Aren’t you coming?’ Percy asked as he helped Cassandra in.

The girl shook her head with hard determination covering the fear in her eyes, “We have to find our mom first.”

A gruff voice down the hall shouted, “Down here!”

Another replied, “I heard voices!”

And the girl gave them one last push and the boy started to close the hole in the wall.

Cassandra stumbled and the music box dropped from her hands. Before she could reach for it the door was closed and Percy was carrying her over his shoulder and sprinting down the servant’s tunnel.

It is not a happy ending for Vex and Vax. Know that they live, that they escape the castle before someone found them. Also know that they do not find their mother, or at least do not find her the way they wanted to. However, Syldor found them. And though he didn’t believe that children of such a station were worthy of his lifestyle he did know that he was their father and now they were his responsibility. Syldor would give them clothes, an education, and a place to live. He would not give them a home.

While Vex’ahlia and Vax’ildan’s story is a sad ending, Percival and Cassandra’s is a tragic one.

They found their way out of the castle through a back entrance. From there they ran through the small wooded area behind the house where Vesper taught him how to build a fort. And the through the small river that left their clothes soaked and cold and heavy. And right beside the river, as luck would have it, the train was running by. It was running as it always did which struck Percy as odd. The world was still working despite everything about his world crumbling around him.

Percy, holding Cassandra up in his arms, managed to get her inside one of the open carts. And then he stumbled a bit and fell a few steps behind. She reached her arm out to him and told him to hurry, told him to take her hand. But Percy was a smart boy. Percy knew that every step he took put him farther behind. And even if he did grab Cassandra’s hand she wouldn’t be able to pull him up. He wasn’t going to make it into the train, at least not that car. Perhaps one of the other ones.

He instead grabbed the silver chain that disappeared into his vest pocket and pulled his pocket watch free. He heard a sharp snap but didn’t look to see if the chain had broken. He just focused on getting the watch into her hand.

“Take this to Uriel in Emon! Emon!” He shouted the city’s name again, giving it all the emphasis he could. “I’ll find you in Emon! I promise!” And when her fingers grabbed his hand, and in doing so the watch, he let go. Leaving only the glimpse of silver in her palm with the Whitestone Crest and his name inside, hopefully it would be enough proof as to who she was.

Percy didn’t stop running, he hoped to catch up still, or at least hop into another car. And Cassandra screamed for him to hurry, but the farther he fell behind the more her voice was lost in the howling wind.

And then Percy’s foot caught a tree root or a rock or a piece of the track and he tumbled forward. There was a crack as his head hit something on the ground and then his body lay still in the snow.

 

That is what happened seven years ago on the night the Briarwoods came back to take what they called vengeance on the de Rolos. After that night they took over the city, after all there was nobody to stop them. It was rumored that the Briarwoods made a deal with a dark god, but it was also rumored that Percival de Rolo was still alive, so most people took it with a grain of salt.

The next morning a boy with brown hair was found in the snow by the train tracks. His clothes were muddy and torn and he had nothing identifiable on him. And when he woke and they asked him who he was he frowned and said he thought his name was Percy. He remembered nothing else except that he wanted to go to Emon. The de Rolos were all assumed to be dead, it wouldn’t be for another month that the common folk found out two had escaped and one had made it to Emon. So when this boy covered in dirt with no memory of who he was or where he was from said his name was Percy and he wanted to go to Emon nobody thought anything other than this boy has no family and nowhere to go.

Instead he was taken to the Whitestone orphanage where he would spend the next seven years. At thirteen he was short and skinny for his age, something that would change in a couple years, but with nothing better to go on they judged him to be ten or eleven. All Percy had left was a small key on a thin chain to a lock he couldn’t remember. His hair grew back in white and he was often kept awake with terrible nightmares he couldn’t remember in the morning.

For seven years Percy grew up in an orphanage. For three Vex and Vax grew up with their father. Until the decided to leave one night.

They went back to Whitestone, the city that had been their home almost all their lives. And over the next four years they would grow to be the best con artists in all of Whitestone and arguably all of Wildemount.

And they were getting ready to do their biggest con yet.

For seven years Lady Cassandra de Rolo had lived in Emon with Uriel Tal’Dorei swearing that her brother had lived and would meet her in Emon. And the reward for helping him back to her was enough to sate even the most money hungry soul.

They were going to hire someone to pretend to be the long-lost Percival de Rolo.


	2. A Rumor in Whitesone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins meet someone they're willing to take a chance on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't edit anything, please let me know if something is glaringly wrong!

The older woman who ran the orphanage walked Percy to the gate. He didn’t turn to look back at the house, he knew there would be nobody in the windows trying to say goodbye one last time. He had never been very popular ever since he arrived, they thought he acted like he was better than the rest of them. Percy didn’t believe it was his fault that he was.

“Now, when you get to the fork in the road take a left. I’ve got a job for you there in the mines,” she rambled on but Percy felt too distant to care.

He touched the small key around his neck and wished that he knew what to do next. He wished he remembered something, anything, other than knowing he wanted to go to Emon. He clung to that so tightly that he wasn’t sure if it was real or made up like everyone thought it was. But it was all he had, but it was still almost nothing.

He went to shake the woman’s hand when they reached the gate but she just hugged him and said “Good luck. I hope you find what you’re looking for, Percy.”

Percy hesitantly hugged her back and whispered, “Thank you.”

And then he started off.

When he got to the fork in the road he still wasn’t sure what to do. If he went left he had a job, a place to sleep, perhaps a new life to help him move on from his old one. He would have what he needed. Jobs were hard to find anywhere in the region ever since the Briarwoods took over. But if he went right…

He stood at the fork for a long time, looking down both ways and hoping for an answer but all he found was snow laden paths.

He sighed and sat at the base of a tree and looked at his key again. It was the only thing from his life before all of this. He told himself that if he went left he should throw it away.

“The practical thing,” Percy said quietly to himself, “would be to take the job in the mines. Who knows if I’ll get another chance like that.” He still didn’t throw the key into the woods.

There was a strange noise and Percy looked up to see where it came from and found himself looking into the eyes of a grizzly bear cub. It cocked its head to the side as it looked at him and Percy quickly looked around for signs of its mother but found none. It was the middle of winter and Percy couldn’t imagine what a bear cub would be doing out in the woods at this time, especially alone, but here it was.

It then seemed to decide that Percy wasn’t a threat and bounded up to him. Percy wasn’t quick enough to scramble away from it and it caught the edge of his long, ratty jacket and began pulling at him.

Percy stood up and tried to get the bear to let go without being too rough with him, but he seemed to think that Percy was petting him and it only encouraged the cub.

It wasn’t until Percy was forced to take a few steps that he realized the bear was taking him down the path to the right. He looked at the key in his hand and then tucked it back into his shirt, “Alright buddy. I’ll follow, I’ll follow.”

 

“Where’s Trinket?” Vax asked his sister who was scribbling something on the paper in front of her.

The twins still looked almost exactly like each other. They both had long dark hair that fell to their backs (though Vex wore hers in a braid), dark eyes, and sharp angles. They were attractive and the whole city of Whitestone knew it, but they also knew that the twins were not exactly the sort you would want to trust your money with. Vex and Vax were con artists, Vex liked to emphasize artist because there was no better con than the two of them and when it was done right (which the twins always made sure it was) it truly was an art.

“He has been getting fidgety from being cooped up,” Vex answered and scratched out another thing on the page, “I let him run out in the woods while we did auditions. He’ll come when we call, probably before then.”

“He is a mama’s boy,” Vax said lightly and leaned back in his chair.

Vex bit back her smile and yelled, “Alright, next!”

A man with short cropped brown hair and a heavy, large blue overcoat on his shoulders that fell almost to his feet. Vex gestured for him to start and he cleared his throat. “Cassandra, it’s me,” he shrugged his shoulders and the coat fell to the floor to show him in a deep cut white shirt that showed almost his whole torso, “Percival.” His voice sounded like someone who had been smoking since he was five and he in no way fit the age they were looking for.

Vax opened his mouth but Vex cut him off with a forced smile and said, “Wonderful. We’ll get back to you,” and waved him from the stage.

He huffed and gathered his jacket, knowing very well what Vex meant, and stormed off stage.

Vax threw the papers in front of him in the air, “It’s useless, Vex, we’re not going to find anyone in this damned city. Especially if we have to keep it this quiet so the Briarwoods don’t find out. There are easier ways for us to make money, it’s not worth all this work to get…that.” He nodded in the direction where ‘Percival’ had stormed off. He then stood up and started off to the door.

Vex followed close behind him, “This kind of money is, this is enough to set us up for life. No more cons, no more work in the mines, we’ll be able to kick back in Emon and drink fine wine for the rest of very long and luxurious lives.” Vex threw an arm over her brother’s shoulders and raised an arm to the sky as if to paint a picture, “Our last job. All we need is someone to look the part, we can teach them the rest.”

Vax looked at her, smiled, and shook his head, “Well if you put it that way…”

“Just a little longer, we’ll find our Percival.”

They opened the door to the city of Whitestone, snow on either side of the cobblestone streets, short and sad buildings, smoke rising from chimneys, and people with gray and black tattered coats and fingerless gloves with pickaxes over their shoulders as they trudged on home. Vex and Vax didn’t look enormously better but they had the luxury of not having coal dust in every crease on their hands and a persistent cough.

“Home then?” Vax asked.

Vex considered calling for Trinket but it had barely been an hour, and while she loved Trinket and he loved her and would never leave her side for very long, he was still a bear and sometimes he needed the forest. “Home,” she agreed and they started back. Trinket knew where to find them when he was ready.

The shortest and most interesting route home (on the outskirts of the city of Whitestone) was through a little-known market for secret things. Here extra rations, banned literature, and information from neighboring cities and countries could be bought. This was where rumors of Percival circulated the most, Vex couldn’t take three steps along this street without hearing whispers of the true Lord of Whitestone, lost or taken or raised by wolves until his triumphant return to Whitestone where he would slay the Briarwoods and retake the castle.

It was like they were begging to be conned.

In this market they also sold old belongings of the de Rolos. Things that had made it from the castle in the attack or were perhaps snatched before they were burned after. Highly illegal things that could get someone hung just for owning them, but also highly sought-after things.

Vex and Vax enjoyed wandering around this little market on their way back. Vax would sometimes pocket something small and Vex would sometimes haggle so well it was like theft, but for the most part they just looked. It was a glance into their pasts, sometimes it was real and sometimes it was entirely false and being sold by conmen (not artists) for a little extra gold.

Bounding down this secret but busy street toward them was a brown bear that came up just past their knees. He would often be mistaken as a dog by people who didn’t look too closely, such as the people he was barreling through to get to Vex and Vax now who were far too caught up in all of the little items they wanted to call theirs.

“Hey buddy!” Vex cooed as she dropped to her knees for him to run up into her arms.

“Ah, you seem to know him then?” A voice asked calmly and Vex looked up to see a man with stark white hair. His clothes looked no better than hers, worse in fact, but he held himself differently. She would have said he held himself like a lord but there wasn’t enough disdain in his face for that to be true, in fact his blue eyes were unexpectedly soft when they met hers.

“Yes,” she answered and stood up. He was a few inches taller than her and he looked lean, but not the hungry lean that Vex and Vax (and most of Whitestone) knew well.

“Haven’t seen you around,” Vax stepped up beside his sister and crossed his arms over his chest, “and you’re pretty hard to miss.”

“You could say I’m new in town,” if Percy was put off by Vax’s coldness he didn’t show it.

“Whitestone doesn’t do new in town. These are good people, they’re not doing anything wrong. And if word gets out about this place and guards come through here, I’ll—”

Vex elbowed her brother sharply in the ribs and hissed, “Vax, do you see what I see?”

Vax rubbed his side and shot a glare at his sister, “Ow,” he said pointedly and then tried to follow her gaze. She just seemed to be looking at Percy so he said, “What? A rat? I was already warning him—”

“Not _that_. That,” she pointed to something just behind Percy.

Vax had to lean slightly to look around him and there was a large family portrait of the de Rolos. The piece was enormous and had once hung in the main sitting room over a fireplace. Vax thought it was in the room they had escaped from long ago but couldn’t remember for sure.

“I’m not sure that’s going to be our saving grace,” Vax said a little shortly, “it’s a little big and it doesn’t talk.” She didn’t take his frustration personally, the day had not been going particularly well.

Vex rolled her eyes, “Look at it. See his eyes?” then she turned her full attention back to Percy, “he’s got Percival’s eyes.”

Percy wasn’t terribly found of being talked around like this, it felt a little too much like being back at the orphanage. “I’m sorry, what’s going on?”

Vax held up one finger and said, “One second, pal,” grabbed his sister by her shoulder and turned away from Percy. He leaned in close to Vex and whispered, “What are you talking about? No he doesn’t. Vex’ahlia, his hair it white. We’re looking for brown. Do you need glasses too?”

She rolled her eyes at him, “I can see that. I’m not talking about his hair, I’m talking about his eyes. They’re exactly like his. And as for his hair they say that Lady de Rolo has a streak of white too. Not gray, white, like snow. People think it was caused by the stress of the ordeal, why couldn’t we say that about him?”

“It’ll never work, look at him, he looks like he crawled up from a pompous sewer.”

“We need pompous,” Vex reminded him, “We’re not going to find anyone better. The entire city is a sewer now.”

Vax pressed his lips into a thin line and looked at his sister for a few moments. He cast a glance over his shoulder to Percy who was standing with his arms crossed and a deep, confused frown on his face. “Gods above this better work, we only get one chance at it.”

“It’ll work,” she assured him and they spun around to face him again. “Welcome to Whitestone. Once the proud home of the de Rolo family. Now not so much. Say,” she held up a finger and gave him an almost flirtatious smile, “What do you know about the de Rolos?”

Percy shrugged and looked away from the woman in front of him. She was beautiful of course and Percy wasn’t exactly sure how to handle that. “Not much.”

“Have you heard about the lost lord?” She asked. Vax cocked his head to the side as he looked at Percy with more intensity, scanning him up and down.

“A little?” Percy adjusted his jacket to try and cover himself more from Vax’s stare. “Two of the kids got away, one made it to Emon and one didn’t, nobody know where he went.”

“Yes, yes, quite sad isn’t it? What’s your name by the way?” She asked with a sudden lightness considering the topic.

Vax began to walk around Percy, more obviously sizing him up. Like a piece of cattle. It made Percy very uneasy. “Percy.”

“Lovely, I’m Vex’ahlia. Do you have a last name, Percy?” She reached out to shake his hand.

He hesitantly took it and she gave him a firm handshake but didn’t let go immediately. “I…don’t actually remember.”

Vax’s eyes flicked up to his sister from behind Percy. “You don’t remember?”

“I don’t remember anything before the orphanage found me,” he admitted. Vax’s gentle hands checked Percy’s pockets without him noticing, looking for a weapon or sign that he wasn’t who he said.

“How old were you?” She asked.

“They think I was 11.”

She pursed her lips at that, “But you don’t know for sure. You could be any age. When did this happen?”

“Seven years ago.”

Vax found nothing suspicious on the man and threw his arm over Percy’s shoulders, “Seven years? Vex, isn’t that when _Percival de Rolo_ escaped?”

“It is indeed, Vax. And your names are so eerily similar, honestly I’ve got goosebumps. Could you imagine if he really were Percival, Vax?’

“I’d say it was fate,” he answered. Now this is where a con turns from a job to art, it is about the bond, the banter, and the little ideas you plant as seeds in the mark. Vex and Vax were he best because they knew each other better than anyone else could hope to know another conman.

Vex asked, “Say, Percy, where are you going?” before he could fully understand what they were suggesting.

Percy thought about the woman he had bumped into earlier. He had asked how to get to Emon and she had shaken her head and said nobody leaves the country, not without passports and papers that only select people are given. It was a hopeless dream to get to Emon without them and they had to be given to a person from a high ranking official, they weren’t available to the general public.

“I…had hoped to go to Emon. I’m afraid that I can’t though, I don’t have the papers I need. So, I will probably go work in the mines, make a home here instead.”

“Vex, we’re going to Emon,” Vax said it like a question.

“We are, we even have one set of extra papers,” Vex drew the passports from the inside pocket of her coat and held them up, “but they’re for him. _Percival_.” She sighed heavily and tucked the passports away.

“I don’t know Vex, look at him. We may have stumbled upon exactly who we’re looking for. You’re right, he’s got his eyes. I mean, look at this painting,” Vax spun Percy around, his arm still over his shoulders, “spitting image. Well, except for the hair, but trauma will do that to you.”

Percy barked out a laugh, “I assure you, I am no lord.”

Vex shrugged behind him and said, “How do you know? You said so yourself, you can’t remember anything.”

Vax jumped in, “You could be anybody. You were found seven years ago—”

“He disappeared seven years ago,” Vex took a step towards him and moved to his other side and draped her arm over him like Vax was doing.

“Your name is Percy—”

“His was Percival.”

“You’re looking to go to Emon—”

“Percival sent his sister to Emon.”

“Honestly,” Vax said while still looking at the painting, drawing Percy’s eyes to it, “it’s uncanny.”

“But,” Vex sighed and stepped away. Vax gave Percy a pat on the back and stepped back too, “you said you’re no lord. We’ll just have to keep looking.”

Vax shook his head and said, “We’ve been looking for him for so long, Vex, maybe he really is gone.”

They began walking away with Trinket following behind. Vex said, just barely loud enough for Percy to still hear, “I had hoped to reunite Cassandra with her family this month, but it seems we’ll have to keep trying.”

“Laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you?” Vax asked quietly as they walked away.

“That one needs the extra push.”

They waited a few seconds and still Percy wasn’t chasing them down. “I don’t know, sister, looks like you scared him off.”

“Well wait a minute,” she almost laughed and pulled him over to a table to look at the blankets they were selling, “just give him a few more seconds. He’ll come.”

And sure enough he did. Behind them his smooth but still lightly rugged voice said, “It might not be me.”

Vex spun around a wide smile lit up her face, “If it wasn’t she would know right away and you would still be in Emon.”

He nodded slowly, “And like you said, I don’t remember anything and the timeline matches up. It _could_ be me.”

Vax pulled his sister into a tight, dramatic hug, “Vex, we’ve done it! We can finally bring the de Rolos together again!”

She laughed and whispered so Percy wouldn’t hear, “Now who’s laying it on thick? Cut it out before he runs.”

Vax set her down and held his hand out to Percy, “Vax’ildan. Your key to your family.”

Percy went to shake his hand and Vex bumped Vax out of the way and took it in hers, “Half of your key,” and cast Vax a look only a sister can.


	3. Stay I Pray You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before they leave Whitestone is a hard one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first song I'm referencing that is exclusively in the Broadway show, and let me tell you, every time I hear it my heart hurts. If you don't want to listen to it, just know that it's a beautiful song about the three heroes leaving Russia (Whitestone/Wildemount) to embark on a journey to an entirely new place, Paris (Emon), and they feel deeply conflicted about leaving their home behind. And as someone who spent most of their life moving from state to state, I know that feeling well, and sometimes the only thing you can say is that this place will always be there for you, even if you know you'll never be back.  
> Sorry, that was dumb and a lot of oversharing.  
> The nice thing about writing this all in advance is that I can post shorter chapters like this without feeling guilty for not posting more. Some chapters should just be short.

Vex and Vax took Percy back to their small home on the outskirts of the city. When they ran away from Syldor to start their own lives without his help or his disdain they went back to the only place they really knew. Their mother’s house.

It had been vacant all those years. Nobody had come to even clear it out. Everything looked like it had they day they left. Syldor hadn’t let them come take anything or pack any bags, the twins weren’t sure if it was because he didn’t care or if it was because they couldn’t waste any time as they fled from the country.

Coming home and seeing everything exactly the same had been one of the hardest things they had ever done. Vex felt raw from crying for days and after Vax was past the crying he just wandered the house feeling numb and gently touching things from his past. It was months before either one could even go into their mother’s room. But that was three years ago. It was different now, this was their home again and it rarely hurt like that now. The memories were fond and if there was pain it was a slight ache and bittersweet desire for things of the past.

Even so they did not offer for Percy to sleep in their mother’s room. Instead Vex took her mother’s room and Percy took her bed in the room she still shared with her brother. When Percy was in bed reading a book Vax went to see his sister to talk in private.

Vex was sitting cross legged on the floor on top of a blanket with a pillow on the floor with her and Vax gave her a small, sad smile. “Hey there, Stubby,” he said softly.

Vex looked up and shifted nervously. “I didn’t think I’d feel like this.”

“About Mama’s bed or about leaving?”

She sighed and pat the spot beside her. “Both, I guess.”

Instead of sitting beside her he sat behind her and began to take out her braid. “Remember when we used to crawl into her bed at night when one of us had a bad dream?”

When Vex closed her eyes she swore she could smell the perfume her mother would use on special occasions. “Some nights we did it just because we felt like it.”

“She always just laughed and lifted the blanket for us to crawl in. The only time I ever heard her complain about it was when your feet were cold.”

Vex was quiet for long time before she said, “We spent our lives here, Vax. And when Syldor took us back home with him we started planning how to come back. And now we’re here and we’re just going to leave again?”

Vax was about halfway through remaking Vex’s braid. “Whitestone will always be here. And when someone handles the Briarwoods we can come back, but this place isn’t safe. The longer we stay the more dangerous it gets.”

“I know,” and Vex did. She had pushed just as hard for them to get out of Whitestone for a year now, she had helped come up with the plan to pass someone off as Percival for the money. But this was home. This house, this city, this country. And Emon…Emon was a strange world she had never seen.

“We’ll come back with enough money to buy the place,” Vax promised her lightly, knowing that would at least make his sister smile.

And she did. “We’ll come back and buy Whitestone after we buy Emon.” But they both doubted they would ever see Whitestone again, not with the Briarwoods ruling over it.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. When Vax finished with Vex’s hair he shifted so he was sitting beside her and they were looking at their mom’s old bed. And after a while Vex decided to talk about the weight that she didn’t expect to feel on her shoulders.

“Do you think he really believes it or that he’s doing what we’re doing, trying to get a way out?” She asked.

He shrugged, “Who knows. The guy seems a little crazy, honestly. He doesn’t remember anything from before he was 11?” Vax shook his head in disbelief.

“But what if he’s telling the truth? And what if he thinks he might actually be Percival de Rolo? We’re lying to him.”

“If we do this right we’ll be giving him a family. We planned on lying to Cassandra with an actor, if this guy really believes he’s her brother then what does it matter if he’s not?”

Vex leaned against her brother’s arm and dropped her head on his shoulder. “So you don’t think it’s wrong?”

“I think if they believe it then they both get what they want and so do we,” he answered.

“Then let’s make them believe it,” she said with more conviction than moments ago.

On the other side of the house while Vex and Vax sat in their mother’s room and talked quietly about their plans and what they were doing with their lives now Percy was alone in their room. He was reading from the only book he had. The orphanage only had a handful of books throughout his years there and they were the only thing Percy truly loved about that place. When he left he was allowed to take one and it was the only thing he had in the deep pockets of his coat.

But for the first time the book wasn’t enough to take Percy’s mind off of the situation. He sat the book on the nightstand and lay down on the bed. The pillow smelled like the familiar pine from the woods and he could tell Vex spent much of her time in them.

As if to prove that point Trinket did a small half growl as he stood at the edge of the bed and looked at Percy with confusion. “They’re down the hall,” he waved Trinket away and the cub lumbered off to find Vex and Vax, leaving Percy completely alone for the first time.

He wasn’t sure what he believed. The boy in the painting didn’t look like him, the boy probably died years ago, and most importantly he was just Percy with no last name. He was an orphan, a man with no memory of his life, and his only belongings were one set of clothes, a key to an unknown lock, and a book. To say he was a prince was ridiculous.

But he had no memory of who he was.

Until something was proven to be wrong there was a chance it was true. He couldn’t say that it wasn’t him without knowing who he was for sure. And if there was chance that this lord’s sister would know, or would at least be able to tell him who he wasn’t, then it was something he had to try. He spent every second of his life that he could remember not knowing anything about himself, the only thing he wanted now was to find out who he was.

And there was at least a hint in Emon.

And that was the part that truly worried Percy. Emon was something unknowable. Whitestone was all Percy had ever known. This city was everything to Percy. And tomorrow he would be leaving it and he had no idea how to say goodbye. How did he say goodbye to all he knew? How was he supposed to leave his home without any plans to come back? And if he wasn’t Percival, if he was only Percy, which was much more likely, then what? He was in Emon with no money, no job, no home, and no clue as to why he was there.

These thoughts plagued Percy for hours after Vax came back and told him to get some sleep.

Across the city in the castle Lord and Lady Briarwood were dressing for a formal occasion with nobles who had aided in their rise to power. Lady Briarwood had her head tipped forward to show the back of her neck while her husband laced up the back of the dress.

“Percival de Rolo? In that little market?” Delilah asked with light disbelief. If the man in the doorway hadn’t been working for the Briarwoods for so long he would have wondered if she knew who he was talking about, but the casual disinterest of the Briarwoods was just a part of their demeaner. They believed they could handle literally anything thrown their way, that at most even this was a mild inconvenience.

“Yes milady,” he answered.

Sylas kissed the back of his wife’s neck softly and whispered, “I told you we should have sent the dogs after him.”

She reached her hand back to touch his cheek and smiled softly, “You were right, my love. It was foolish to leave this work to the guards and to believe them when they said he died out in the snow.”

He kissed the palm of her hand and pulled back a little to see as he tied the laces. “And now what shall we do?”

“We made the mistake of sending the wrong people the first time. This time,” she spun around to face him, placed her hands on his chest and gazed up into him like a woman in love, “this time we will send the right one.”

His hands rested on her hips and he looked down at her like she was the only person he ever wanted to look at again. “You mean to send her after them?”

“Those little cons have always been slippery, Doctor Anna Ripley will not let them escape her. But enough talk of the de Rolo brat, my love, I am more interested in you.”

The man in the doorway knew enough to know he was done being talked to. He stepped out of the room, shut the door, and walked away, leaving the Briarwoods to their business while he went to tell their guests that they would be late.

 

The next day the twins boarded the train with Trinket and Percy in tow. And as the train lurched forward they all felt the pull in their heart saying, “Jump off the train before if leaves, stay home, don’t leave Whitestone.” But they all stood at the door and leaned out for as long as they could to see their city vanish into the distance.

It was quite a while before they retreated into their compartment, officially leaving Whitestone behind them in hopes of a new future in Emon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's few things I love more than the dynamic the Briarwoods have. Seriously dark and 100% in love with each other, I just love it so much. Wish I could write it better, but I'm trying


	4. In the Dark of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their train ride isn't so simple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for everyone's support! I've loved the comments and seeing the kudos and I' glad that you guys are enjoying this little thing I've worked on. I am a bit sorry that all the lines in the movie are so good and that this chapter doesn't feel very original, but we all knew that coming into this.  
> Thank you again and I hope you all read something that you truly love! Happy Thursday!

Vax finished setting the bags away and when he went to sit down he almost sat on Trinket. The cub had hopped up on the seat with Vex, who was currently scratching behind his ears as she read a book that Vax had pretended for the last couple of years that he didn’t know was a sickly sweet romance novel (it wasn’t hard to pretend, the cover was a simple blue and the title wasn’t anything spectacular, but Vex liked to think nobody knew her guilty pleasures).

So he sat next to Percy.

He looked over to make polite conversation and say that Percy was staring out of the window with a faraway look in his eye. And while he was deep in thought he fiddled with a hole at the bottom of his worn-out shirt.

“Stop messing with it,” Vax said and nodded to the hole, “You’re Lord de Rolo. Lords don’t fuk with holes in their clothes.”

Percy gave him a hard side-eye. “How do you know what a lord is supposed to act like?”

Vex’s lips began to twitch up into a smirk as she pretended to read and not listen to them. Trinket leaned into her hand more because she had gotten distracted and stopped petting him.

“I make it my business to know,” Vax answered matter-of-factly.

Percy hummed in an obviously dissatisfied way. “I see.”

“Look, I’m just trying to help,” Vax said as he shifted in his seat.

“Vax’ildan,” Percy said deceivingly lightly and Vex waited with baited breath for what he said next. “do you really think I could be Lord Percival de Rolo?”

“Of course I do.”

Percy nodded, “Then I’m not sure you’re in any position to tell me what to do,” and he turned back to look out the window.

Vex snickered and when Vax looked at her for backup she just shrugged. Then she leaned down to Trinket to whisper, “I think Percy just won another one.” Percy and Vax didn’t seem to be getting along particularly well, but it did allow Vex to keep track of who had the best comebacks. So far it had been Percy.

Eventually Vex gestured for Vax to switch with her since the boys were just snipping at each other or ignoring each other. Percy was quiet for a bit while Vex read and he watched his country fly past his window. And then it began to change into something unfamiliar.

“Are you going to miss it?” He asked Vex quietly.

She slowly shut her book and set it to the side. “Miss Whitestone? No. No of course not,” but she didn’t sound as sure as she thought she would.

“It was your home,” he said softly.

She shrugged and looked out the window with him. “It’s just a place I lived, like any other. There was nothing special about this place.”

Percy didn’t press her, even knowing it wasn’t the truth. Percy didn’t know her mother had lived there, he didn’t know she spent years of her life only thinking about how she would come back to Whitestone, he didn’t know that she had only ever thought of living in Whitestone and that, somewhere deep down, she was telling herself she would make it back. She wouldn’t be in Emon forever. All he knew was that it wasn’t the truth and that wasn’t his business.

So instead he just said, “I didn’t think it would feel like this. I’ve wanted to go to Emon for as long as I could remember, I thought I would feel happier, or at least relieved, but it just feels…hollow.”

Vax looked between the two of them as they talked about Whitestone. Vex talked a little about growing up, nothing about the truth of their past but instead about small things. Her mother used to let them help her at work around Winter’s Crest in exchange for pocket change to spend at the festival. He told her about the orphanage, the good parts at least. About some of his little inventions he made, even with such limited resources.

And then Vax stood up carefully so as not to wake Trinket and slipped out of the door without them even noticing. And he shook his head as he walked down the train and muttered, “They don’t even see it, do they?”

He rolled his shoulders, feeling stiff from the last few hours, and walked down the length of the train. He passed by a couple bent towards each other talking in hushed tones. He paused to listen and what he heard was…not exactly good.

“It’s hideous,” one said.

“I didn’t think they were ever going to do it,” the other whispered.

“They were waiting for people to forget, wouldn’t want a riot on their hands,” they looked over their shoulders and Vax leaned into a doorway to hide himself. They obviously didn’t see him because he continued, “They had to wait to take of the de Rolo crest off until that pesky group of revolutionaries was taken care of.”

“I heard they were all slaughtered.”

“Not surprising.”

Farther down the hall there was a knock on one of the doors and someone said, “Traveling papers! I need to see your papers!”

The two separated and Vax saw what they had been holding between them. Papers. And at the bottom of the papers was the sanctioned seal. No longer the de Rolo crest but something that resembled…an eye in the palm of a hand.

Vax had forged these papers himself, he knew what was on them, but he still frantically reached into his coat pocket and took them out to check them.

On the bottom was the sun with five stars. Not a hand and an eye.

“Fuck,” Vax breathed out and hurried back to their private room.

Vax had been gone for long enough that Percy was asleep and his sister was back to reading the worn book (their mother’s book he thought). “Vex’ahlia,” he whispered so as not to wake Percy, “we’ve got a problem.”

She shut her book and looked up at him, “I don’t know why you guys can’t get along, but—”

“They changed the seal on the papers,” he said and held up his papers and pointed to the old crest, “and they’re two cars away before they get to us.”

“Shit,” Vex hissed and jumped up, “I’ll grab the bags, wake Percy up.” She started pulling the bags off of the rack above the seat and quietly telling Trinket to wake up.

Vax bent over Percy and shook his shoulder, “Percy,” he said, “Percy we—”

Percy grew up in an orphanage with people who didn’t like him very much, so nobody really took it personally when Percy punched Vax. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought you were—oh, it’s only you,” Percy said as he sat up and took in the situation.

Vax rubbed his jaw, “Ha ha, hilarious Percival, but we’ve got to go.”

 

“The baggage car?” Percy arched an eyebrow as he looked around. “There wouldn’t be a reason we’re hiding from people, is there?” He drew his jacket around him but it didn’t keep the cold off him.

Vex set the bags down and Vax turned to face Percy with a fake smile that wasn’t nearly as convincing as his sister’s, “Of course not. I just figured you shouldn’t have to be surrounded by so many commoners.”

Percy didn’t look very convinced. He opened his mouth to say something that Vex was sure would only put him up another point, but he was cut off when the train rocked and there was a terrible sound as the other three-fourths of the train detached from the baggage car.

“What the fuck just happened?” Vex yelled and flung the door open to look outside.

“We’ve got to stop the train,” Vax said and ran to the other end of the car. He threw open the door and stepped over the gap where lengths of metal connected the cars. He tried for the handle of the engine car but it didn’t budge.

Vex began to run towards her brother, planning on helping him open the door because she knew Vax and letting him alone in a dangerous situation was not advisable, but Percy grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back. “There’s not enough room up there,” he said as Vax threw his shoulder against the door and it swung open. Waves of heat radiated out and Vax covered his face as he ran in. “He can handle that. We need to think about another to stop it.”

Vex looked to the door where her brother had gone through and finally turned away, “Check the boxes.”

The engine was empty and anything Vax could think would be of use was broken. There was no stopping this train, not through any normal ways. He had to leap across the gap and back into the baggage car. “Something’s wrong!” He had to yell over the sound of the wind and screeching now. “We need to jump!”

“Jump?” Percy threw his head back and a bark of laughter escaped him. He wildly gestured to the door behind them which showed a dangerously steep cliff that they would most definitely not survive, “You first!”

“Then—then we’ll—”

Vex pointed back to the engine car, “We’ll unhitch the cars and coast to a stop!” She ran forward and jumped down to the connecters. Somehow they had become welded together and she was left trying in vain to pound at it with a metal bar she had picked up in her earlier search. “God fucking dammit!” She shouted as it snapped in two.

Percy had more luck in finding something of use. He stretched his hand out to her from the door, passing a red cylinder that was sparking on the end, “Quickly!”

Vex looked at it, obviously a stick of dynamite from the mines, and said, “That’ll do,” And slammed it into an opening in the bars. Percy grabbed her hand and helped her back into the car and they took cover behind one of the crates where Vax was holding Trinket. Vex looked at Percy with pleasant surprise, “What did they teach you in that orphanage.”

Percy put a hand on the back of her head, pulling her farther down and, unintentionally, closer to him. “This was more of a personal hobby,” he said just before there was the sound of the small explosion from the dynamite and an earsplitting screech.

Vex and Vax poked their heads up to look out and see the engine car rocketing ahead.

Vex stood up, “Good, now we can just coast to a stop.”

Percy and Vax stood up with her and before anyone could agree a huge shadow rose from beneath the bridge they were coming up to and they watched the bridge shatter into pieces.

“Jenga,” Vax said quietly to his sister.

She would have elbowed him in the gut if she wasn’t reeling from what looked like a shadow monster that just ruined their chances at survival.

Vax ran to the back of the car again and looked out. “Vex’ahlia! Find me a chain or something to slow us down!” He shouted and she snapped back into action.

She and Percy began throwing crates open again to search through them. Vex was halfway through the third when she looked up and saw a human sized dark shadow climb up into the train. “Son of a—Percy, find Vax something!” and she ran up to the monster that they were now sharing train car with and gave him her best right hook.

While Vex engaged in a fistfight (not her first) with a shadow monster (definitely a first) Percy lifted a heavy chain from his crate and ran over to Vax who was hanging out of the train and looking underneath it for a place to hook the chain.

“Vax,” Percy shouted and held out the chain.

“What? Not you!” Vax shouted as he grabbed the chain. Percy was a young man from a poor orphanage, Vex wasn’t exactly strong but he definitely trusted her more than Percy to pick up heavy chains and help haul his ass back into the train if need be. Percy was…well he looked like Vex and Vax did when they were servant children.

“Vax’ahlia’s a little busy!” Percy shouted and a surprisingly solid hand grabbed Vax to steady him.

“Vax!” Vex yelled from across the train having only heard her name, “Stop being a dick and get a move on!”

Vax grit his teeth and ducked back under the train to hook the chain on. And across the train Trinket, still a cub, ran forward to Vex’s aid and slammed into the shadow beast, throwing it out of the train where it slammed into the tracks beneath them and shattered some of the planks before it dispersed into mist.

One of the broken planks was thrown back towards Vax and he yelled Jenga as loudly as he could and Percy, with strength and speed Vax never would have expected, yanked him up into the train again and they watched as the huge piece of wood was flung away.

“And to think that could have been you,” Percy said and pat Vax on the shoulder before helping gather the chain up into their hands.

They looked at each other, counted to three, and threw the chain off.

The train started to turn on the tracks, definitely slowing in speed but now threatening to roll with them still in it, and Vex went over to Vax and Percy who were still standing at the door. She was sweating and panting now but, against all odds (like the broken bridge, the train now derailing, and the shadow monsters that were trying to kill them), she was still alive.

“Boys, I believe this is our stop!” She yelled as she stepped between them. She linked her arms in theirs and jumped forward. Vax jumped with her, always eager to do the most dangerous thing. Percy had to be pulled along with a shocked shout. Trinket was close behind, there was no way he was letting Vex and Vax leave without him.

They tumbled in the snow through the sparse woods they were now in, rolling and bouncing along. And when they came to stop every single inch of Vex’s body ached. She pushed herself up and there was a small groan underneath her that made her open her eyes.

Percy lay in the snow under her. Snow was coated in his hair that made it seem to shimmer in the moonlight and when his eyes finally opened Vex felt something in her freeze. She would later blame it on the adrenaline and the fact that they survived a near death experience, and perhaps she would be right, but in the moment it didn’t matter. Vex was staring down at Percy and he was…just beautiful.

“Vex!” A voice yelled through the trees and Vex scrambled up off of Percy.

“We’re over here!” She yelled to her brother and held her hand out to Percy to help him up.

 

High up on that mountain on a ledge that overlooked the tracks and the havoc that was wrecked upon them was a lone woman. Her lips were pursed into a tight, thin line as she glared at the tiny black spots moving between the thin trees far below her. The brats had survived.

“It seems we will have to try a different tactic.” A dark shadow rose up beside her and without looking at it she said, “Tell Lord and Lady Briarwood that they’re still alive but that I have it under control.” She lifted her hand and the moonlight glinted off of the thin pieces of metal that clicked and shifted when she moved the mechanical fingers to pass through the shadow and turn it into a dark, curling mist, off to deliver its message.


	5. Learn to Do It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy has some second thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot to post this today! Glad I caught it, tomorrow is a chapter I really liked writing. This one was nice too, but the next one has the romance I love.

Percy didn’t complain about having to sleep in the woods for a few nights, the twins even thought he looked comfortable with it, like he had done it before. Perhaps he had.

They had all shed their heavy coats by the second day and the third day was the hottest day of the season so far. They didn’t realize it but the sun was beginning to get to their heads.

For instance, Vax was in the process of mentioning Gilmore for what Vex thought was the hundredth time. “In his last letter he said he had taken up fashion design to pass the time.”

“Knowing Gilmore I bet he’s got people swarming him and asking for him to make them the newest fashionable thing he can come up with.” Vex glanced at her brother who was leaning against a tree and cleaning under his fingernails. “Did you tell him we would be coming?”

“I didn’t have the chance to send a letter before we left. But don’t worry,” Vax tilted his face up to the sun and Vex rolled her eyes at the soft smile that crossed his lips, “he likes when I just drop in.”

Percy was standing beside a small river with water dripping from his hair (which seemed to shine in the sunlight Vex noticed when she was pretending not to notice him). “Who is this Gilmore?” He asked.

Vex fanned herself in dramatic fashion, “Only the most spectacular man on the continent. And he and Vax have been dancing around each other for years.”

Vax pretended to look a little shocked, “We haven’t been dancing. Not since that night in the gardens with the band.” Vax then looked at Percy, “While he’s a wonderful man, we’re going to see him because he has the ear of the Emperor and Cassandra. Shaun is going to be the one who will get us an audience with her.”

Vex didn’t realize what he was saying or that she probably needed to stop him until it was too late. By the time she started to shake her head at Vax Percy was already saying, “You want me to convince this Gilmore that I’m Percival de Rolo?”

Vax pushed himself off of the tree and held his hands up, “Calm down, de Rolo, it’s not a big deal.”

When Percy turned to face Vax there was a coldness in his eyes that shocked the twins. “When you suggested this you said that you wanted me to meet Cassandra, that you just wanted to help reunite me with someone who might be my family. You said if you were wrong that it wouldn’t be an issue, that we would just part ways. You never said you wanted me to _lie_ to someone about who I was. If this lie meant anything, if it helped anyone, I might consider it. If this lie was something I wanted—” Percy looked like he wanted to say more but he just shut his mouth and balled his hands into fists at his sides.

Vax took a step toward Percy in an almost aggressive way, “You don’t know it’s a lie, what if it’s true?”

“I’m not playing your game anymore, I’m going back to Whitestone,” Percy snapped as he started to walk back the way they had come.

Vax grabbed Percy’s shoulder, stopping him in his tracks, and said, “So there’s one more step in your road to Emon. I just thought this as something you needed so you could find out who you are, isn’t that what you want? This is the next step.”

Percy tore his arm away from Vax and gestured to himself, “This is not what a lord looks like.”

“Lords look like whatever is in style, it’s not about this!” Vax grabbed a fistful of Percy’s old shirt.

Percy stayed perfectly still, he didn’t even reach up to push Vax back. “Let go of me,” He growled with an icy stare.

“Vax,” Vex snapped and put a hand on both of their shoulders and pushed them away from each other. She looked at her brother pointedly and waved him away to go look at the river or something. By the time she turned back to look at Percy he was already storming off.

She caught up to him at the bridge that they had crossed before they took what was supposed to be a short break. She touched his shoulder lightly and said, “Percy, please.”

He stopped and for a second she thought she felt a little of the tension in his shoulder disappear before he pulled away and turned to face her. “This wasn’t the deal.”

Vex didn’t argue that. She instead just leaned on the railing and looked down into the water. This part was so smooth and almost still that she could see a bit of her reflection in it. And after a moment Percy’s face peered up at her from the water as he took the space next to her. “What do you see in the water?”

Percy hesitated, just for a moment, because he was looking at her reflection. Over the last few days she had only seemed to catch his eye more and more. He noticed everything about her, the slight curve of her lips when he and Vax bantered, the scattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks, the way she said his name, how when she was focused on something she tilted her head to the side and really took it in. She had given him that look a few times, her arms would be crossed over her chest and she would stare at him, her eyes just wandering along him as if she was committing him to memory. And then she would look away quickly, as if she didn’t want him to know what she thought about him. He secretly hoped it was something good.

Percy hesitated because he wanted to say he saw her, one of the most beautiful and genuinely good people he’d ever met. Not that he met many good people, he wasn’t even a good person, but Vex’ahlia…there was something about her he found hard to ignore. And he wanted to tell her. Instead he said, “I see a homeless, jobless man with no family.”

Vex nodded and then said, “I see someone determined to find themselves.” For a second the current moved in a way that merged their reflections so that half of her face and half of his met. Two lost souls looking for something they couldn’t even name. And then the water shifted again and they were both themselves.

“I can’t lie to them. I mean, I can, but I don’t want to pretend to find my family. I want to find them. Meeting Cassandra and seeing if she knew me, that was one thing, but I’m not telling this Gilmore that I’m a de Rolo when I’m not.”

“Percy,” Vex looked over at him with that focused look again, soaking him in, “I’ve only known you for a little while, but you’ve shown more strength and leadership than any royal I’ve ever met. And I have known my fair share of nobles.” Percy raised his eyebrow at that and she sighed and looked back to the water again. “Our father was a high ranking noble in Syngorn. We went to live with him after…after our mother died. Vax and I were schooled in all sorts of things lords and ladies are supposed to know. And I can tell you right now,” Vex stepped back from the railing and turned to face Percy, “you outclass every single one there.”

Percy straightened up and opened his mouth and then closed it. He had learned early on there was no real sense in trying to change Vex’s mind when she had made her decision, but this was different. “I am not so sure.”

She shrugged, “You said so yourself, when she meets you, she’ll know. You’re not lying, Percival, you’re just trying to remember.”

Percy, for the first time, didn’t feel uncomfortable at hearing the name Percival directed at him. And when Vex turned her attention back to the river he did too. They stood beside each other and stared out at the water and their shoulders just barely brushed against each other.

And then Vax’s face was between them and he pat Percy on the back, “So we’re ready to press on?”

Percy narrowed his eyes at Vax and shrugged his hand off him again. He started to walk away and Vex pursed her lips at her Vax, “You need some tact, brother,” she said quietly and went to catch up to Percy. She didn’t touch him this time, she just said, “Percy if you don’t want to go to Emon and see if this is who you are, then you can walk away. But we can help you. We can help you remember the truth and remember your family. There’s nothing for you back there, just a job in a mine. Emon is where you are meant to be. You just need to trust me.”

Percy looked over his shoulder at her and ten to Vax a few feet behind her. “You think I could really be this de Rolo person?”

Vax spoke before Vex did, “I really do.”

Vex didn’t say anything for a moment and then she said, slowly, “Someone out there is. And I have seen a lot of people claiming to be him and not a single one has convinced me that they could even be from the same city. Not until we found you.” It was not a lie.

“Alright then. What exactly do I need to know before we get there?”

Vax smiled, “I’m so glad you asked.”

Over the next two days while they travelled to the nearest city that had an airship to Emon Vex and Vax taught Percy everything they knew about who Percival de Rolo had been before the attack. They taught him about his hobbies (tinkering, horseback riding, and oddly enough cooking), about his family tree (both distant and immediate family), and what his home life had been like.

And weirdly enough Percy seemed to have a good instinct when it came to these things. He committed them to memory easily and towards the end he even seemed to know things the twins hadn’t outright told him. Nothing big usually, but he knew his uncle’s dog’s name despite Vex and Vax not remembering if they told him, he could talk about things he thought he remembered inventing with detail that the twins couldn’t confirm or deny because they knew absolute shit about that kind of thing.

But by the time they reached the city they felt confident that they could convince Gilmore to let them see Cassandra, and once they were with Cassandra it should have been easy with the jewelry box they still had from the night they escaped.

The last airship had left for the day and there wouldn’t be another until the next, so that night they spent some extra money Vex had stashed away to stay in a nicer hotel. And Vex and Vax were in the lobby having a drink while Percy had gone to sleep early in the room.

“I don’t know about this anymore, Vax,” she said after about half of her drink.

Vax nodded, “At least when we were doing auditions everyone knew they weren’t really him.”

“He trusts me and we’re just…lying to him. We’re just taking advantage of the fact that he’s never been conned before.”

“Vex’ahlia,” he said softly and rubbed her back with the palm of his hand as she downed the rest of her drink, “this is of course a con to make some money, but in the end Cassandra and Percy will both get what they want, a family. Does it matter if they’re related by blood if they find what they were looking for anyways?”

“If you just randomly found me without knowing we were related would we have what we have?” Vex asked. “I mean, even if it was his real sister we were finding, can they ever be this close?”

Vax smiled, “Come on Vex, you know nobody will be as close as we are, especially not some snobby rich people. But maybe they can be the pretentious version of us.”

She held up one finger to the bartender to ask for another drink and said, “I guess that’s something to feel good about.”


	6. Meant to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dancing lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite songs and favorite scenes. I'm a sucker for the dumb romantic bits

 

The next day they boarded the airship. They had a single room for all of them and it was small but the crew was kind and it was absolutely breathtaking to stand outside and watch the world below them, so they didn’t spend much time in the room anyways.

And just before the sun began to set Vex found Percy leaning on the railing looking very deep in thought.

“Percy,” she said softly.

He turned to look at her and smiled, “Vex’ahlia.”

Vex liked when he said her name like that. So many people simply stuck to Vex, which was nice, but Percy seemed to savor every letter of her name sometimes. Well, sometimes that was how she thought of it, she doubted that’s what he was really doing. “You’ve mentioned a few times that you don’t have any new clothes and well—you’ve been trying to get to Emon your entire life and I thought you would want to do it in clothes for your new life.”

“You didn’t hav—”

She started to back away, smiling just a little, “They’re in the room. You should get changed and we’ll meet you at the front of the ship for dinner when you’re done.” And she used her brother’s classic move and walked away before he could tell her she didn’t need to get him anything.

 

“What do you think? Is he ready?” Vax asked. He was sitting on a barrel with his back up against the half wall that kept him from going overboard.

“He knows all the answers to the questions, he believes it, and we have the jewelry box. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do to prepare him.” She was standing beside him, facing out to the sea below them.

“Oh,” a smile crept along Vax’s face as he looked to something behind her, “I’m not so sure about that.”

“What are you—oh.” Vex felt the wind get knocked from her when she turned and saw Percy standing there. He wore a clean white shirt and coffee colored vest and pants. While his gold rimmed glasses had looked out of place in ragged hand-me-downs with holes they seemed to pull the look together now. He sleeves were rolled up to the elbows for something resembling a casual look but far too nice to truly be so. But Vex could see it, she could imagine him standing over a table working on something with impossibly small pieces that his long fingers turned and put together.

Percy smiled at her stunned silence. In all honesty he hadn’t felt so comfortable in a very long time, though the second Vex looked at him he felt the nervous jump in his chest. “How do I look?”

“Like a de Rolo,” Vax said.

She brushed the hair that had come free of her braid behind her ear and smiled, “Very lordly. Dinner won’t be ready for a little while, but this view,” Vex let out a sigh and turned to face they orange sky, “it never gets old.”

Vax stood up and waved his hand to a few of the crew he had made friends with earlier and there was soft music that began to trail through the air. “Why waste the time. Percival, do you know how to dance?”

Percy looked at Vax a little curiously, “They didn’t teach us.”

“All lords should know how to dance, shouldn’t they sister?”

Vex eyed her brother suspiciously. There was something her brother wasn’t telling her, she could sense it. “Are you suggesting I teach him how to dance?”

Vax smiled and held a hand out to Percy, “I could teach him if you like.”

She playfully slapped his hand away, “Gods no, you’re a terrible dancer.” She held her hand out to him and Vax took his seat again. Trinket raised his head to watch Percy take Vex’s hand and they took cautious steps towards each other before they got in position to dance.

Vex adjusted his hands and took a deep breath before they took their first steps in the dance.

Vax scratched Trinket behind his ear and whispered, “How can they not see it?”

The cub leaned into Vax’s hand and made a quiet noise that Vax took as an agreement.

“You’re leading again, Vex!” Her brother called out teasingly and Vex rolled her eyes.

Percy smiled, “I don’t mind if you like to take the lead,” he said softly as they turned.

“Well good because contrary to popular belief,” she shot a glance at Vax, “there are many women who lead.”

“If any of them are like you, I believe I will be in good hands.”

They slowed to a stop and for a moment they didn’t move apart. They just stood there, the world spinning around them, both a little lightheaded, both ridiculously oblivious, and then Vex took a small step away from him. “I think you’re doing fine, you may not win an award for best dancer but you’ll blend in with everyone else. I think I’ll go check on dinner.” And she left without another word.

Vax stood up quickly and said, “I’ll go help her. You get comfortable and keep an eye on Trinket,” and ran after his sister.

She did not go looking for dinner. She went to the other side of a wall far away from Percy so he couldn’t see her and pressed her back against it and tried to catch her breath. She was not difficult for Vax to find. “Vex, what’s going on?”

“I just—I needed a moment.”

“Are you going to tell him?” Vax asked.

“Tell him what?” Vex adjusted her shirt so she didn’t have to look him in the eyes.

“You know exactly what. I’m not going to lie, he’s quite charming sometimes.” Vax had thought about it over the last few days. At first he had been totally against the idea. Percy was already a liability without adding romance to the mix and he wasn’t the only fish in the sea for Vex. But this con was already the most dangerous con they had ever run and adding something to it like some light romance wasn’t going to change that. And in the end, what really pushed Vax into this, was it wasn’t his decision. Vex decided what made her happy and it was his job to help, and it looked like what made her happy was Percy and he wasn’t going to be the one getting in the way of that.

“He’s a mark, Vax. Nothing else.” There was a practiced coldness to her voice.

Vax shoved his hands deep in his pockets and started to walk off, “No reason why he can’t be both,” he said lightly as he left.


	7. Close the Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra is too young for this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi did I mention I'm terrible? I totally spaced last night and I'll probably post another chapter before I go to bed to make up for it (but don't quote me)

“Another fake.” Cassandra was not particularly tall for her age, but all her life people had told her she had an old soul. She was not sure if it was an old soul or a tortured on, but either way it seemed to keep people from noticing that she was rather short.

“We’ll find him,” Gilmore bustled about the room, cleaning up the tea again and making sure there was no trace of the imposter. “I really thought he could have been Percy,” the man sighed and a deep frown formed on his face.

“We have looked for him for seven years,” Cassandra stood and walked to the window to watch him depart. He had dark hair and a lovely suit. He was tall like their father, had the sharp angles of their mother, but his shoulders were too broad, and he lacked the sharp wit she remembered about her brother.

“Then we must be getting close.” Gil was optimistic, he always was.

Cassandra pursed her lips. It was not her old soul, nor the tortured one, that gave her an air of regality. It was the white streak that was braided into her hair, the straightness of her back when she stood with her hands clasped behind her, the analytical look in her eye when she surveyed the newest man to try and claim her brother’s name. There was just something about Cassandra that forced everyone else to pause and rethink trying to take advantage of her young age.

Gilmore walked over to her, put his hands on her shoulders, and smiled softly, “Your brother is looking for you. And when he finds his way here we will have tea ready for him.”

Cassandra sighed and stepped away from her friend. He had been a few years older than Percy when she arrived. He was one of the various nobles who made it out of Whitestone that night, though she had never talked to him before Uriel introduced her. They were tutored together, the two kids from Wildemount seeking refuge in this foreign place. They had bonded over it quickly and been close ever since.

She had become Uriel’s ward after she fled from Whitestone to Emon. For the first few months Uriel had helped her meet all of the boys who claimed to be Percy, but he came less and less over the last few years and now it was only Cassandra and Gilmore.

“It’s time to face the facts, Gilmore,” Cassandra said. Her face was blank and her voice empty. “My brother died in the snow that night. All that is left in this search is lies and pain. It is time that I moved on.”

“Cassandra—”

“No more. I will see no more Percys. I’m finished.” Cassandra drew the curtains of the window closed and said, “Tell them all I am finished.”


	8. Emon Holds the Key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is truth in the lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!

“Vex’ahlia! Is that really you?” Gilmore had opened the door when they knocked the second time. He stood before them in a deep purple robe over a beautiful and rich looking outfit. His long hair was pulled back and his beard groomed perfectly with a little gold piece tying it at the bottom.

“It’s been such a long time, Gilmore,” Vex said with a charming smile.

Gil embraced her before he looked to the man to her side. “And Vax’ildan,” he stepped up to Vax who was already grinning like a schoolboy.

Vax held his arms out and when Gilmore hugged Vax is was so very different than how he hugged Vex. Gilmore hugged him with hands that held him gently and for a few seconds longer than one holds a friend. For a moment Gilmore and Vax looked like lovers.

And then Vex cleared her throat and said, “If this goes on any longer I’m going to have to ask that you get a room.”

When Gil pulled back there was the start of a wicked smirk on his lips, “Perhaps later. But why don’t you come in, first? We could have some tea and—oh, I’m sorry I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself. I’m Shaun Gilmore,” Gil held out hand to Percy.

Percy hesitated before he held his hand out and shook it. “My name—”

Vax touched Gil’s shoulder, “He’s Percival de Rolo.”

Gil arched one eyebrow at Vax and looked back at Percy whose cheeks were turning pink now. He turned his head away and dropped his hand. “You’re telling me this is Cassandra’s lost brother?”

Vax nodded, “I am indeed. Now, why don’t we go inside, have some of that tea you mentioned, and you ask Percy some questions to confirm he is who he is and then we go see his sister and they all live happily ever after.”

Gilmore looked Percy up and down. “He doesn’t look much like a de Rolo.”

Percy seemed to lose a little of the newfound confidence his clothes had gifted him and Vex decided to jump in. “Come on Gil, look at his eyes. Those are de Rolo eyes and you know it. As for the hair, Cassandra went through quite a bit and now she has a streak of white hair. Percy was on his own for years in Whitestone, so he’s got a bit more than her.”

Gil nodded slowly. “Alright, I’ll ask him the questions. But only because it’s you two,” he glanced between the two of them and a smiled turned up his lips. “But you can’t come in. I love you both very dearly but, well, I just have to make sure you’re not coaching him through it all. You understand, I’m sure.”

Vax and Vex shared a subtle glance at each other and only because they had been together since birth did they see the other’s panic at the thought of Percy alone while he was being questioned. But they hid it expertly well and Vex smiled, “We’d never hold it against you darling.”

“The garden is quite nice, I can send someone out with tea for you both while you wait. And perhaps some food for your little friend,” Gilmore reached down to pat Trinket and then gestured for Percy to come inside with him.

Vex and Vax made their way to the garden and took a seat at a bench. But Vex was restless and couldn’t sit for long before she began to pace. She walked the garden with Trinket at her side. She finished a cup of tea with her brother. And in the second hour she could handle it no longer.

“I’m going to find a window to watch from,” she told her brother.

He nodded, “I’ll help you find one.”

Vex watched from the window for another full hour. Vax was sitting beside her with his back against the wall as he entertained Trinket. Gil’s back was to her and Percy was facing her but not paying attention which made it easy for her to read his lips. He was doing well, he answered the questions with all the facts and he sat up straight and didn’t fidget with his necklace. He looked and spoke like a lord and it seemed natural to anyone who hadn’t trained him in it.

And then Percy said something that made Vex’s blood run cold.

“You want to know how I escaped with Cassandra?”

It was something they had never prepared for. In all the research and preparation the twins had done for the con they had never found any sign that Gilmore asked this question. And they never told Percy because they didn’t want him to know they had been there all those years ago. They didn’t want anyone to know. Not even Gilmore.

Percy took his glasses off and cleaned them slowly as he started to talk. “We were running…and I had no idea how to get out…” Percy’s eyes looked like they were in another world as he talked. “I thought we would die there, like the rest of my family. And then…there were these two children…” he put his glasses back on and Vex blinked in surprise. “They must have been servants, they…they took us to another room. And they opened a wall and pushed us through. But…they didn’t come with us, they were looking for someone and couldn’t come with us until they found them.” Percy laughed a little and ran his hand through his hair nervously, “It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Servant children opening up walls and leaving us?” He shook his head, “It sounds like a dream.”

If Gil said something she couldn’t see it. She probably wouldn’t have paid attention to it anyways. She was just staring at Percy—at _Percival_.

Gil stood up and walked into another room, likely to invite them back inside, but Vex didn’t move.

Something must have caught Vax’s attention because he looked up at her, “Vex? What’s going on?”

“Perc—”

There was a rolling laugh as Gilmore rounded the corner, “I should have known you couldn’t sit still for that long. Why don’t you come inside? There’s something I need to tell you.”

Vex looked at her brother and shook her head. Then they all followed Gilmore inside and into the sitting room. Percy’s eyebrows were drawn together and he was frowning slightly as he drifted in thought.

“Percival,” Vex’s voice was just barely higher than usual, just barely off from what it always was, and both Vax and Percy looked at her curiously when they noticed, “how did it go?”

He smiled a little and nodded, “Fine I think. He didn’t kick me out or tell me I was wrong.”

“You got every question right,” Gilmore assured him, “and more than any other person I’ve interviewed you are the one I believe the most. And I wish more than anything that I could help reunite you.”

Vax cleared his throat, “What do you mean by that, Shaun? All you have to do is set up the meeting and you’ll have done just that.”

Gil sat down and sighed heavily, “Cassandra has…decided she is no longer seeing people claiming to be her brother. She said she was tired of these interviews and people who pretend to be someone they aren’t.” Vax glanced to Vex but for once she didn’t look back. She was stiff and staring straight ahead purposefully, and as much as Vax wanted to talk to her about what was going on he knew now wasn’t the time.

“Gilmore,” she said almost lightly, “you’re one of her closest friends, you can’t tell me there’s nothing you can do.”

Gilmore looked between them all again and then his eyes lit up, “Are you familiar with Scanlan Shorthalt?”

“He’s a musician,” Vax answered, “apparently he’s very good.”

“Extremely. And he has a show tonight with his troupe. It is supposed to be a once in a lifetime show, Cassandra is quite excited to go to it tonight. I believe there are still tickets available if you wish to go,” Gilmore winked and Vax smiled.

“I could kiss you, Shaun.”

He laughed and Gil and Vax shared on of their looks, “I would prefer you save it for when we are alone. But you cannot go like that. No offense, Vex’ahlia—”

She held up a hand and smiled, “None taken, it has been a very long road. Besides, I was hoping to get some new clothes. I hear there is a wonderful up-and-coming designer in Emon.”

A throaty chuckle came from Gil and he stood up, “I’ll see what I can whip up for all of you.” He then swept out of the room with sheer grace that only he possessed.

Vex then turned her smile to Percy, “Keep an eye on Trinket, will you dear? I just want to talk to Vax real quick.”

Percy nodded, still looking a little lost in the clouds, and said, “Of course.”

Vex pulled her brother out into the hall and into a side room. She shut the door behind them and leaned against it, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She felt dizzy and…relieved. The weight she had carried for seven years was lifted from her shoulders. The boy she had abandoned…the boy she never saved…the boy they left to find their mother who had passed long before they found her, the boy Vex had nightmares about sometimes even now where he didn’t die in the snow but in her arms at her hand…he was here. Percival was here. She had found him. She had brought him here, she was taking him to his sister.

A shaky breath left her and anyone could see that she was on the verge of tears, and that sent Vax into a panic. “Vex, what happened?”

“It’s Percival,” she said quietly.

“What did he do?” Anger was laced in Vax’s voice and he clenched his hands into fists at his side, “I never liked him, I should have known—”

“No Vax,” she opened her eyes and looked at her brother pointedly, “Percy is _Percival._ It’s him. It’s really him.”

Vax’s hands unfurled, and his shoulders lost the hardness to them from moments earlier. “What—you mean—”

“He lived, he really lived. And he really lost his memory all those years ago. And we really found him. Gilmore asked him how they escaped the castle and Percy—Percival—he knew. He _remembered_ it.”

Vax ran a hand through his hair and took a slow breath. And then a smile began to break over his face and he grabbed his sister by the shoulders, “We found him.”

She smiled back and laughed, “We found him.”

He drew his sister into a tight hug and lifted her a few inches off the ground, “We found him, Vex!”

She pushed him off and sighed in relief. “I always thought…”

“I know,” Vax had been plagued with the same thoughts for seven years. That if they had just gone with him they could have saved him. But here it was, proof that they weren’t responsible for his death. Perhaps they could have done more, perhaps they could have helped him get on the train, but they were helping him now.

“We should get back before they start asking where we’ve gone,” Vex dabbed at her eyes to make sure there was no sign of tears and smiled like usual again.

Gilmore was in the sitting room with Vax when they returned and was already taking Percy’s measurements. “I’ll be right with you just as soon as I finish up with our long-lost lord.”

Vex and Vax took a seat on the couch and waited their turn, quietly looking at Percy with new eyes. If he noticed the change he didn’t say anything, but they doubted he could notice anything when so much was happening to him so quickly.

 

Vex was the first one done which was a surprise to her, but she tried not to think about what kept Vax and Gilmore so long while they got ready together.

She wore a blue dress that swept the floor, straps that fell from her shoulders in an elegant fashion. Gilmore had also found a pair of diamond earrings (she had to move her small gold earring to the second, higher piercing on her ear. Vax had a matching one and they never took them off) and an absolutely beautiful necklace to go with it. Vax had done her hair before they parted to change. It was still in a braid but pulled up into a bun and he tucked the blue feathers into it. Gil had obviously kept the feathers in mind because they only seemed to elevate the look.

Vex waited outside in the garden with Trinket for a while. She was planning on how to sneak him into the theater when Vax came out in a sleek black suit and his hair was pulled back with a few colorful beads in it. He looked like he belonged in a place like this. She supposed she did too right now. It was an odd thought considering they’d been conning people for years to get to this point, but they were still never sure they’d actually get there.

Gilmore was not far behind in a plum colored suit with a black paisley pattern on it. It was as gorgeous and eye catching as everything Gilmore wore, and Vex knew he would be making heads turn all night. She also knew Gilmore was mostly focused on how many times he could make Vax’s head turn for him.

And then Percy came out.

He stepped outside a little nervously, his hand at his tie and the other dipping into his pocket to touch something, perhaps the necklace he had been wearing since they met. Maybe Shaun had asked him to take it off. But the gentle nervousness only made him more unbearable to look at for her.

When they had been lying about who Percy was it was easier to see herself with him. He wasn’t really a lord, she wasn’t really under him. She could be good enough for him. But now…things were different now. And she was still the same.

Percy’s suit looked black until the light shone on him and then it looked like a midnight blue. His shirt was a light gray and the black tie had small white dots that looks almost like the night sky up close. He adjusted his glasses when he noticed Vex was staring and smiled, “You look beautiful,” he said softly.

She smiled and ducked her head, “Thank you, Percy. You look wonderful as well, very lordly. Gilmore,” she turned to her friend and touched his arm, “you’ve really outdone yourself this time.”

Gilmore chuckled, “Oh come now, this is no different everything else I do. Spectacular and riveting.” He winked at Vex and she shook her head with a smile.

Vax held his arm out to Gil who took it without a second thought. “I believe it’s time for us to go now, don’t you?”

“I believe it is, the theater isn’t terribly far and it’s a lovely night out, shall we take a walk?” Gilmore asked.

“I think that sounds wonderful, I haven’t been able to see much of Emon,” Vex answered.

Gilmore and Vax began to walk out towards the street and when Vex went to follow Percy stepped up and held his arm out to her. When she looked at him curiously his ears turned red and his cheeks went a little pink, “I just thought you might like someone to lean on because of your heels. I wouldn’t take it personally if you would rather—” He stopped talking when Vex looped her arm through his.

He blinked as if he wasn’t expecting her to actually take his arm and then shook his head slightly and smiled. They began to follow behind Vax and Gilmore and Trinket stayed close to Vex.

“Vex’ahlia,” Percy’s voice was cautious, “I am not sure I’ve made it clear how grateful I am to you.”

Vex didn’t look over at him, she instead turned to look into one of the windows of a store they passed by. If she looked at him she may have broken. “It’s been my pleasure, darling. I’m just—” she paused, realizing that she no longer had to lie to him, “I’m just glad that we found you and we can bring you home.”

“I’m still not so sure I’m who they think I am,” he answered quietly, like it was a secret.

They slowed to a stop and she turned to face him. She took his hands in hers and gave them a gentle squeeze, “You are. You have a name and a home and a family. You’re not—you’re not lost anymore, Percy.” She touched his cheek, “Everything in the last seven years has come to this. You are getting your happy ending.”

It was the idea of a happy ending that made her take a step away from him before she did something without thinking. She wrapped her arms around her. Percy opened his mouth to say something and Vex was grateful when her brother made a snarky remark about them falling behind to stop him. She couldn’t bear to hear what Percy wanted to say, not when she couldn’t bear the heartbreak of him rejecting her or her having to reject him.

She tilted her head towards her brother up ahead to signal that they should move on and she didn’t take his arm again as they walked to the theater.

Gilmore told them where he and Cassandra would be and suggested they find them after the intermission and then Gilmore left them to take his seat. Vex had hoped that she and Percy wouldn’t have to sit next to each other but Vax clearly didn’t get the memo since he took the end seat and when she gave him a half glare he just pointed to the seat beside him, between him and Percy. Trinket took a seat in front of Vex and pressed his body against her legs and Vex felt a small part of her relax, but not enough to take her mind off of how close Percy was.

She was so focused on being careful to keep her shoulder from brushing against Percy’s that even after the lights faded and the stage lit up she was still taken by surprise when the first music notes filled the air.


	9. Quartet at the Ballet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex and Vax meet Cassandra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're catching up to where I am, which means I better get going  
> Thanks for reading!!

Vex was surprised at Scanlan’s show. She had heard about his lewd jokes, his incredible improv, how he not only proved every heckler wrong with his skill but also encouraged them so he could insult them back. She had heard how funny, how borderline gross, and how risqué he was. She had not heard about how beautiful his music could be.

The first time that beauty came on stage was when he and his daughter played together. It was breathtaking and amazingly well done, but even with all of that the best part was that it was fun. It was a constant build of each one trying to one up and beat the other in a contest of skill, and it showed that it was a true battle and not a staged one. They danced as they played and laughed and jeered playfully at one another. And at the end Vex could see that Scanlan lost on purpose. His breath fizzled out and Kaylie proudly held her note for an unnecessary length of time to brag a little about it, but Scanlan didn’t even take a deep breath when he lowered his flute. He had thrown the match. Not for the audience, not because people wanted Kaylie to win, but because he wanted her to.

Vex wondered if their time together was coming to a close and he was giving this win to her as a going away gift. Or maybe sometimes he chose to lose to her to keep her motivated and to encourage her to continue her growth. Vex didn’t know, but she knew he was a good father. A caring one if nothing else.

The next time Vex saw the true beauty of his show was with his wife, Pike Trickfoot. He was telling jokes about how they met, a short little skit of their antics in the beginning and how she rebuffed him. But he had taken her name and every time he told people his name was Scanlan Trickfoot there was a swell of pride and love and joy that couldn’t be contained in him. And when she was on stage with him he bubbled with too many emotions to keep inside. Vex felt like she was at their house, listening to the tell her the story of their romance for the hundredth time, rather than sitting on a balcony and watching a show preformed for her.

Scanlan Trickfoot enjoyed a great many things, sex, drinking, gambling, getting into trouble, lying, even fighting and danger (though he denied it), but more than anything he loved talking about his family. His friends and his wife and his daughter, they were everything to him. And it was beautiful and unexpected.

While Vex became engrossed in the small details of the show Percy couldn’t even pay attention for long enough to learn everyone’s names. He was scanning the other balcony seats and looking for someone who looked like him in the crowd. He felt like he couldn’t breathe at times. His leg bounced silently and his hands grabbed fistfuls of fabric at his knees.

And then Vex laid a gentle hand over his on the leg that was vibrating and he grew still for a moment. “There’s no need to worry,” she whispered to him, “everything is going to be fine. And you’ll leave here knowing who you are, I promise.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and she smiled a little before letting go and turning her attention back to the show.

Percy’s leg still bounced and he still felt an immense amount of worry, but he did feel just a little better about it and he stopped actively searching the audience for a girl he didn’t know.

 

At intermission Vex and Vax stood up and Percy suddenly realized that this was it. This might be the last time he was just Percy with no last name and no past. And if he still was just Percy with no last name and no past after this…he wasn’t sure if that was any better. Of course the idea of things staying the same was…comforting, but it wasn’t what he wanted.

When Percy agreed to come along he had hoped to get off the train, see Cassandra, and when she said he wasn’t her brother he would walk away and could truly start his search for whatever was calling him to Emon. That was before he and Vex landed in the snow and he swore he forgot how to breathe. Before Vax and he became what Percy had seen with siblings in the orphanage, not exactly friends but always having each other’s backs. It was before Vax and Vex told him about what Percival’s life was like before the attack on Whitestone. It was before…before everything. Percy was no longer certain that he could go back to being Not Percival.

No matter what happened, once he stood up nothing would be the same anymore.

Vex held a hand out to him and slowly he reached up and took it. Her hand wasn’t the hand that fit the elegant dress and the richness of the world they were in. Her hands had known work for years, her fingers were long and slender but they were still rough and capable. And they felt right against Percy’s, two hands of nobles made rough from their lives. Both fitting in to the world of the rich and silently knowing they were better than it. And it drew him back to earth and he felt solid again. This, no matter what, would bring him closer to the truth.

And in a small, closed off section of his heart, one that felt immense guilt at the thought, said that perhaps Vex’ahlia could still help him find this truth, even if he was not who she thought he was.

He stood up and she slipped her arm through his and walked pressed against him up another level and around to the other side where Gilmore had said they would be sitting.

And then Vax smiled and quietly told them to wait outside before he ducked between the curtains that acted as a door to talk to Gil.

And they were left alone together. And Vex was standing in front of him, adjusting his tie even though there was nothing to fix, she was just filled with nerves and felt better being able to touch him.

And then she made the mistake of looking up into his eyes. Those eyes were the reason they chose him, the reason they’d met. And they were beautiful.

“Percy—”

“Vex’ahlia—”

The both paused and laughed nervously, and the moment of waiting allowed Vex to rethink what she was going to say. What almost spilled out of her mouth was, “Percy, I love you. And whatever happens here I’m with you as long as you want me.” What she said instead was, “You told me earlier how grateful you were for my help. I never told you how much it means to me that I met you. I’ve learned a lot in the last few weeks and just…thank you Percy.”

It was true. Vex had valued money more than most things for a very long time. Money was obviously still a very important thing to her, she was the child of a poor servant to a rich family, she had lived with her father who made it known how much status and money mattered in the world (he made her believe that, more than anything else she could ever do, her worth came from him and his station), and when she left that she and Vax were on the streets of Whitestone with no money and no work. It is easy to say money doesn’t mean anything when you are not afraid of starving to death on the streets, and even when you are past that concern like Vex was now it is a lingering part of a life. But with Percy came another thing she valued more than money. She valued Vax more than money, but Vax didn’t have the ability to just give her money or status the way Percy would in a few hours. And that, knowing that she could potentially use Percy to get everything she had been searching for…knowing that Percy was so closely tied with money was what made her step away from him for the second time that night.

And as she stepped back heard something through the heavy curtains. She smiled at Percy and said, “One moment darling, I’ll let you know when they’re ready for you.” Vex parted the curtain and slipped inside to see Gilmore leading Vax away from another set of curtains. As the second set of curtains fell shut Vex caught a glimpse of a girl taking a seat again.

Gilmore shook his head and Vex looked over her shoulder to where she had left Percy on the other side. And then she pressed past her brother and Gilmore (Gil who tried to reach out and stop her but she dodged out of the way). Vax was on her heels and Gil behind him.

Vex stood there and without thinking she said, “You’re not going to see him?” Her voice was hot and angry and filled with venom.

Cassandra sighed and stood up. She turned to face Vex and Vex saw someone old and tired in the body of a girl, not even a young woman yet, still a teenager, forced to grow up far too early. “Ah, it seems I was correct. You are those two from Whitestone. The twin con artists.” Vex ground her teeth. “Your call for actors has reached even Emon. I must say,” her lips formed a thin line as she looked at the twins, “I am impressed that you’ve followed through with it.”

“You don’t understand,” Vex forced herself to try and sound calm, “it’s not like that.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Cassandra’s voice was cold and her eyes, the de Rolo blue eyes, were hard and angry. “I lost my entire family years ago, my brother included. If he had made it out—”

“Things are not what you—”

“—he would have come. I’ve heard about your auditions for the part of Percival de Rolo. You’ve been looking for an actor to play the part of my brother, to take advantage of—” she took a deep breath and released some of the tension from her shoulders and Vex saw it. A lonely girl playing noble when she wanted things to be the way they used to. It was a familiar and gut-wrenching thought. “You’re worse than vultures, at least they wait until everyone is dead.”

Vax was terse when he said, “We’re not lying to you. That man out there is Percival and if you would just meet him—”

“Every person who I’ve seen has said they aren’t lying to me and every single one has been. And none of them made as much noise about their plots as you two.”

Vax’s hands were fists at his sides, “Just meet with him, that’s all we’re asking.”

“I’m done. My brother died long ago and I’m moving on. I suggest you two find someone else to lie to.”

She turned away and went back to her seat. Gilmore touched their shoulders gently and with a sad smile he led them away.

And in the middle room, like a sitting room perhaps for servants or ladies in waiting, was Percy. He was not in the main hallway where Vex had left him but was instead standing right outside of the curtain Vex and Vax were leaving. And his face said it all.

He was blank. There was absolutely nothing in his eyes when he looked at them. He nodded and slid his hands into his pockets. A casual but lordly look, Vex thought. He was a natural. “I believe it was a smart idea. Quite lucky, really. A boy with no memory who happened to be around at the right time is much more believable than someone who has been training for years to be him.”

“Percy,” Vex reached out to him, “it’s not—”

“Perhaps things will work out better for your next con and you’ll get the money and status you so obviously desire.” It cut Vex’ahlia through to the bone and Vax went stiff beside her.

He turned on his heel and walked away, leaving them alone with the truth and no one to believe them.

Gilmore looked over his shoulder and a hush fell outside. “I have to go back,” he whispered. He grabbed Vex’s hand and touched Vax’s cheek, “I’m sorry.” Vex knew what Gilmore must have seen, a broken heart is difficult to hide so soon. “I will talk to you later, perhaps tomorrow you can come for tea and we can talk about this.”

Vex felt far too hollow to acknowledge him fully but Vax nodded. And then Gilmore left and it was just them.

Vax guided Vex outside and then looked around to make sure they were alone before he said in a hushed tone, “He’s really Percy?”

And that made Vex angry, “I swear to all the gods, Vax, if you start thinking I’m lying too—”

“I don’t think you’re lying, I just want to know how far you’re willing to go. Because I may have an idea on how to get her to see him. But it’s not exactly the most—”

“Whatever it is,” she said firmly, “illegal, dangerous, fun, I don’t care. We can’t be the ones who ruin this for him, Vax.”

Her brother smiled a little, “Alright. Just follow my lead.”


	10. Journey to the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy finds the truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's the worst? It's me. I'm the worst. Now I'm caught up to where I wrote ahead, the next chapter is only half done but (though I don't act like it) I'm a fast writer and it's almost over, so I don't think the waits between chapters will be long  
> Thanks for coming this far with me

Vax’s idea turned out to be the most illegal thing they’d ever done. Not because Vex and Vax never did illegal things, obviously, but because what Vax had in mind was technically kidnapping a literal princess.

They waited outside the theater, not far from where car and valets waited. Vax and Vex were professionals at blending in and not being seen, so nobody even looked their way once the show finished and their employers began to pour from the doors.

Vax stood with his body blocking most of Vex, just another shape in a black suit, and Vex kept an eye over his shoulder to watch for Cassandra as she left. Vex watched Gilmore kiss her cheeks and bid her goodbye. Gilmore walked off in the other direction and Vex said, “Let’s start walking over.”

By the time the valet opened the door for Cassandra, Vax and Vex were beside the car. When he shut the door behind her and began to walk around the car to the driver’s seat they were already inside. Vax stepped on the pedal and they tore off into the street as the valet yelled after them.

“Pelor’s grace, Yennnen!” Cassandra snipped from the backseat, “Slow down!”

Vex looked over from her spot in the passenger’s seat, “We’re not Yennen.”

Cassandra’s eyes widened as she realized the situation. “Let me out of this car right now.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Vax said, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

“I demand that you stop this car right now.” She said it with all the force of a grown woman commanding subjects and it only made Vex more invested in this decision. She was only a girl, she shouldn’t have to speak like an adult already. Vex also realized she probably shouldn’t have to be kidnapped, but what else could she do?

“Not until you meet him,” Vex answered and turned her attention to the road.

Cassandra didn’t say anything, and if she was scared she didn’t show it. She simply scowled and looked out of the window while they drove her through the city.

Vex opened the door for her and when Cassandra got out the girl slapped Vex across the face. Vax took a step towards them but Vex gave him a look that stopped him. She looked at Cass, “I’m sorry we had to do this, but you don’t understand. He’s _Percy._ And I know you’re hurt, I know you’ve been lied to. But as lost and alone as you’ve felt for years…Percy’s felt the same way.”

Cassandra almost frowned and looked at Vex like there was no way she could believe that. “If I meet with him will you leave me alone?”

Vex held her hands up, “I swear it.” Then she reached into the small purse Gilmore had picked for her and pulled out the small jewelry box Cassandra had dropped in their escape and pressed it into Cassandra’s hands, “I know that I had every intention of lying to you and I can’t expect you to trust me, but Percy…Percy had no idea. I lied to him too.” Vex’s chest ached and she couldn’t bear to look her in the eye any longer. “Just talk to him. Please.”

Cassandra looked at the _music_ box (Vax and Vex had assumed it was a jewelry box, but Cassandra knew it’s secret) in her hands for a few moments, pure shock coursing through her. She slipped it into the pocket of her overcoat and looked back at Vex. She gave the woman a hard, searching look before she sighed. “I will meet with him. But I have met enough fakes to know one when I see one.”

Vex nodded and took a step back, “Then you’ll know the truth.”

 

There was a knock on the door that made Percy grind his teeth when he remembered who would be on the other side. “I have no intention of talking to either of you,” he snapped and went back to packing up his bag again.

“And I had no intention of talking to you.” Her voice was cool and most definitely not Vex’s.

Percy turned to see Cassandra, with her hair pulled back into a braid, the white streak weaving in and out of the hairstyle. She stood with her hands behind her back and looked about the room curiously. “I thought you were someone else.” It was not an apology, Cassandra noticed, but merely an admission of a mistake. She tried not to smile because it was a terribly Percy thing to say.

“I must say, you’re quite good. The three of you. You move like him, you talk like him, but—” she looked Percy up and down with a frown, “surely people with the kind of information you had would know his hair was dark. Like our mother’s.”

Percy didn’t say anything for a while and then he said, “Yes, well it seems they made a fool of me.” He bowed his head slightly, “I am sorry for any inconvenience and I wish you well.”

“So you really didn’t know?”

There was a bitter look to Percy when he went back to packing. “No, they told me I had his eyes. That I could truly be him. I thought—I thought I was remembering things, but it seems they were just making me believe I was.”

He continued to pack and Cassandra fell deep into thought. She couldn’t piece together the puzzle these twins had made, they had been found out, there was no reason to steal her car and force her to see him now. But they had done so, at the risk of her going to Uriel and having them arrested—or worse.

As she thought her hand reached for the watch she kept in her pocket all the time, the watch Percival had pressed into the palm of her hand the day she fled the castle. It was an unconscious action, one that she did when she was trying to think through a problem. Her brother had always been so good at solving problems.

Percy shouldered his bag and when he turned he froze. In her hand was a silver watch. _His_ silver watch.

He moved without thought and walked over to where she stood and slowly held his hand out for the pocket watch. “May I see that?” He asked. He was quiet and looked terribly far away despite standing only a few steps apart from her. Perhaps that was why she slowly pressed it into his palm.

He turned it over in his hands and a small, gentle smile touched his lips. His blue eyes, those familiar blue eyes Cassandra realized, softened and he said, “I was so proud of this watch.” He ran his thumb over the Whitestone crest on the front and then popped it open to look at the very long name on the inside. “It was the first one I made from scratch.”

Cassandra just stared at him for a moment before she shakily took a seat on the couch beside her because what else was she supposed to do or say? “Your watch?”

A crease formed between Percy’s eyebrows and he frowned, “It feels like a very long time ago.” Percy’s heart felt like it was stuck in his throat and he felt the beginnings of a headache that came with the…the knowledge. To call it a memory was wrong, it was not a memory. Percy didn’t have a vivid flashback or a sudden vision of making the watch. It was just that he knew it. This was his watch, he made it less than a year after deciding he would become a clock maker, he made it in his workshop in the castle. He was sure he could call upon the memories he had of making the watch, but what was the point when he knew its story without bringing forth the memory itself?

Cassandra’s hands fumbled as she reached into her other pocket for the music box. She pulled it out and looked at him, “This is—”

He smiled as he sat beside her and gently took the music box from her. “My Winter’s Crest present to you.” The he paused, as if taken by surprise, and his hand went to his neck. When he had come back to the room he had taken off the coat and the tie, then unbuttoned the top two buttons of the shirt Gilmore had given him. And the first thing he had done was put his necklace back on in hopes of finding some comfort in it.

He pulled the chain up over his head and looked at the small key that dangled from it. And then he turned the music box until he found what he was looking for, the secret keyhole, and when he turned the key inside it opened slowly and quiet music, a lullaby their mother sang so long ago, began to play.

And Percy, with nothing left to do, wept.


	11. Everything to Win

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It might have been a happy ending if people didn't want them dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I would have this up much sooner. Truth is for the few days that this has been done I have not liked it. It doesn't fit the characters I don't think, it fits the story but not really the people. So I struggled with posting it for a very long time and I'm sorry to have kept from posting it for so long, but more I'm sorry for not writing something more believable. The next chapter I like a lot more, so I hope that this one doesn't turn you off entirely.  
> More important, this is where we start to break away from how closely we've been following the movie and now we have a few chapters of something different and a few darker bits, which I always love when the Briarwoods are involved. So I hope that even if it isn't what I wanted you still like the story.  
> Thanks for reading guys, I really do mean it when I say the next chapter will be up much much sooner. I'm almost done with it now and I actually like it.

Vex felt antsy, and formal dresses didn’t have much to fidget with while she waited. Vax stood by her side though, equally as tense but able to at least pretend to do small talk.

Ten minutes passed. Then thirty. Then an hour. And Vax put a hand on his sister’s shoulder and said, “She would have come back out by now if she didn’t know it was him.”

She nodded but didn’t look away from the door yet. “We reunited the de Rolo siblings.”

Vax chuckled, “Well maybe not exactly how we planned.”

“Better,” There was no hesitation in Vex’s voice and that made Vax relax a bit. He worried how his sister would be after this, but he knew better than anyone that Vex was the strongest person he knew and that while she may hurt she was someone who cared most about doing the right thing.

“We should go,” Vax said gently. While she was strong her heart was the most tender one he knew.

She nodded stiffly. “We still lied to him. Being lucky doesn’t change that.”

“Let’s go back to Gil’s, he’ll let us stay with him for a little.” And he guided his sister away. They left the car for Cassandra when she was done and waved down a taxi to take them to Gilmore’s place where he welcomed them with open arms (and Vax with a warm spot in his bed).

 

The next day Gilmore came home from visiting Cassandra early with a letter for them. It was lengthy and formal and didn’t mention the technical kidnapping but instead her gratefulness for bringing Percy back to her. And at the end she requested that they visit her tomorrow.

“We can’t,” Vex said the second she read it, her stomach in knots and feeling vaguely like she might vomit. She couldn’t see Percy again, not now. Not for a hundred reasons.

Vax arched an eyebrow and looked down at the letter again, “I’m not sure two con artists are in a place to deny the true heirs to the entire country of Wildemount and close friends of the Emperor of Tal’Dorei.”

Vex knew he was right, but that didn’t make the idea any better. “I don’t want the reward,” she admitted quietly.

“I know,” he answered softly, “I don’t either. This was…this wasn’t about the money at the end and taking it doesn’t feel right anymore. But they’re still under the impression that we want it, so we have to tell them.”

Vex agreed, knowing she didn’t really have a choice in going to see Cassandra tomorrow, and they went about the rest of their day.

 

It was in the middle of the night and Vex woke from her sleep. She didn’t know why, first attributing it to an uncomfortable position or just one of those times where she woke up for a few seconds before knocking back out again. She thought nothing of it as she turned over in her bed and closed her eyes again.

And then it happened again, only this time Vex’s eyes snapped open and she knew exactly why she had woken in the first place.

There were eyes on her. She could feel them crawling up her in the dark, but she saw nothing in the room. And it was with a sinking feeling that she realized _shadows cannot be seen in the dark_. There was a chill as cold as ice that ran down her spine as her eyes darted around the room.

There was a reason that they had never talked about the day on the train, because there were only two possibilities. One: They had imagined it. Since nobody said what they saw on the train and what shattered the bridge it was possible that she was the only one that saw shadow monsters. Perhaps they were real men and an explosion, perhaps they were all slipped hallucinogenic drugs and Vax saw giant spiders. But if they hadn’t imagined it that meant Two: It was real. That meant something not natural was after them.

And so Vex had decided she didn’t believe in the monsters. After all, they hadn’t shown themselves since the day on the train (though part of her wondered if they were what had caused Percy to almost walk off the edge of the airship). She had no reason to believe that what she had seen was real, well other than her hands had grabbed it and it had been less solid than what she expected and she smelled sulfur for days and…well perhaps there were reasons to believe it, but there were not reasons to believe it would come back.

But that night, in the dark room with Trinket starting to wake up at the foot of the bed Vex knew that now was not the time to pretend that she didn’t believe in the monster. Now was the time to get out.

Vex jumped from the bed, startling Trinket awake as she took him up in her arms and sprinted to the door. Her shoulder slammed into the wall as she reached for the light, because the even more important than trying to run or fight was being able to see the damned thing first. But Trinket was scrambling in her arms, scared and young and off the ground, and he was heavy and more than anything he just wanted to be safe and the cub felt safe on the ground.

She struggled to settle him in her arms and when she flipped the switch and the lights flickered on she saw it, waiting in the room. A shadow. Tall and thin, wisps of smoke drifting off of it and making the room smell sour and burned. It was faceless, a swirling pit of black smoke and darkness, with no lips, no eyes, no nose. It had to things that could have been understood as arms that shifted and changed with the breeze that came through the window. It had no fingers, just tendrils of smoke that split and combined and drifted away.

And in its non-fingers was something…strange. A red stone that glinted and shone through the smoke.

And if the creature could smile Vex believed it would. She could feel its cold humor in the air around her, the sudden tightness in her chest as it raised its non-hand, and her lungs burned when she screamed for Vax and Gilmore as the gem fell from its half solid form.

Before she could see it fall to the ground and shatter into pieces so small it was like dust, she threw the door open and ran out to the hall.

Gilmore and Vax had just come out into the hall with her when there was a thunderous boom and red and orange flames began to start in Vex’s room. “Vex—what—”

Vex ignored her brother and just yelled, “Get out!”

And they finally seemed to recognize the need for urgency in that moment and they turned with her to move for the door.

And there it was again. The shadow, or perhaps a different shadow, standing down the hall in front of them. Another red gem gleaming under the smoke.

It had a voice like shattered glass dragging against the street when it asked for Percy. It didn’t sound like it was speaking, it didn’t sound like words or like his name, but Vex knew. And she lifted her chin and sneered at the shadow with pure disdain. “Is that who you’re here for?” It did not answer. “You’re a fool if you think I’ll give him up.”

It paused, its almost head cocked to the side, and it raised its almost hand to drop the weapon and Vex just straightened her shoulders. No threat, no pain, no danger would make her tell this creature where Percy was.

Vax believed in a little more action. He grabbed his sister around the waist and lifted her (and therefore Trinket) a few inches off the ground and held them against him. His other hand grabbed Gilmore’s and he yelled the codeword Jenga as he threw himself at the window when the thing dropped the gem.

It broke easily under the weight, dug into his shoulder when they landed on it, his sister yelped as she hit the ground, Gilmore shouted something he didn’t fully here, and somewhere Trinket whined, and then there was the sound of an explosion behind them.

They lay there, panting on the ground and Vax carefully felt around at the shard of glass embedded in his shoulder, deciding to leave it in for someone else to take care of, and looked around him. His sister, his bear, and his boyfriend were lying on the ground with him, scared and tired, but alive and with no major injuries.

“They wanted Percy,” Gilmore said quietly when it became apparent there were no others coming after them.

“Everyone will know where he is by tomorrow,” Vex said. Then she looked to her brother, panic clear in her eyes, “We have to warn them.”

There were no arguments there, but it did take them a while to gather themselves and limp off towards the street to hail a cab. Gilmore never looked back at the burning home behind him, the lost fabric and designs and the home he had made for himself. There was a fire in his eyes and he led the way to the street, he hailed the cab, and when they arrived at the palace he took them through the gates. Gilmore even paid the cab driver for his coat so that Vax could cover his arm until they got to Cassandra’s room.

Only one guard tried to stop him but Gilmore waved him off and said something about important business for the de Rolos, none of their concern. Vax and Vex tried to keep pace with him and tried to look like they weren’t bleeding more than usual and perhaps a little like they belonged, but Gilmore was a fish in water and Vex and Vax hadn’t had to swim in a very long time.

There stopped outside of a huge wooden door with two guards posted outside. “This is the East Wing,” Gilmore explained, “the wing reserved for young Cassandra de Rolo while she is under Uriel’s care.” He then turned to the guards, “I have urgent matters to discuss with Cassandra de Rolo.”

“Gilmore,” one of them frowned, “it’s long past curfew, we can’t just let you in.”

“These are the two who found Percival de Rolo. Cassandra herself sent for them and wishes to thank them privately, before the official announcement. She’ll have a hard time having a moment alone tomorrow. But if you want to explain to her why you didn’t let her see them and thank them properly, by all means.”

The guard he was talking to sighed and shook his head, “Alright, alright, but the Commander better not hear about it again. The last time I let you in I got stuck cleaning toilet for a month after your little escape.”

Gilmore gave him a winning smile, “Nobody will know and we’ll be gone in a few hours. As for the last time, head down to the shop and I’ll make sure you have a very nice discount on your next purchase.”

The guard chuckled and shook his head, “I’d rather you just not cause any trouble this time, but I won’t turn down that discount either.”

Gilmore pat the man on the shoulder, nodded to the guard sitting in the chair on the other side of the door, and gestured for Vex, Vax, and Trinket to follow him through.

Once they were a safe distance away Gilmore’s smile faded and his voice became serious, “I don’t know who we can trust. He’s a good man, but we can’t be too careful. We don’t know who—”

“It has to be the Briarwoods,” Vex said.

Gilmore looked over at her as they walked and saw how serious her eyes were. “There’s no way of knowing how far their power and their connections reach. But if it is them it won’t be long before they try again.”

“Then they’re in danger,” Vax said as they approached an ornate door.

“Yes.” Gilmore stopped in front of the door and knocked twice. “They just found each other again, we can’t let anything change that now.”

 

Cassandra was confused to see her friend, the twins who had conned and kidnapped her, and a bear at her door in the early morning hours, but the look Gilmore had was enough to make her listen when he asked her to call Percy to her room so they could talk.

Percy did not make eye contact with Vex or Vax when he came in. He sat in the corner of the room at the desk and pointedly avoided acknowledging them. Vex didn’t blame him, though it did frustrate her immensely, so instead she focused on taking the glass from Vax’s arm and cleaning the wound as best she could.

“So, Gilmore? What’s so important that you needed to bring these two here tonight?” Cassandra was standing at the foot of the bed with Gilmore.

“There was an attack at my house while we slept,” he answered gravely, “it was horrible.”

“An attack?” She blinked in surprise.

“Percy,” Vex’s voice was quiet when she said his name and it shook him to the core though he refused to show it, “do you remember that day on the train? We’ve never talked about it, but you must have seen them too. The shadow creatures.”

He had planned not to say a word to them, it was so much easier to hate them and ignore them, but he looked up anyways. “They attacked you again?” His voice sounded like it was about to break and though his face was perfectly impassive there was no way to hide the concern he so obviously felt.

She nodded. Vax spoke up, “It asked where to find you.”

“Did you tell it?” Percy asked coldly, but it didn’t feel personal. In truth, many things Percy did were cold, at least on the surface.

“I could never do that to you,” Vex answered quietly but firmly.

He was silent for a moment, then he said, “It would have been the best decision. It would have left you alone. It will find me here anyways, tomorrow everyone will know where I am.”

“I would never betray you.” She said it calmly, matter-of-factly, as she finished wrapping her brother’s arm and then looked away from it. Before Percy could answer or process what that meant about the con she said, “We believe it was the Briarwoods.”

A million memories and emotions passed through Cassandra and she sat on her bed. “They’ll never stop coming then, will they? Now that they know Percy is alive?”

Gilmore sat beside her, “I wish I could tell you that you were safe here. But we need to increase your security, we need to go to the Emperor, we need to make sure you’re protected.” He looked to Percy, “Both of you.”

Vax cleared his throat, “You can’t live like that forever. At some point you’ll get too comfortable and your guard will slip. And if that isn’t it, then you’ll live like a prisoner all your life.”

“So what do you expect us to do,” Cassandra’s voice was harsh, angry, scared. It was perhaps the first time she sounded like the girl she was.

And maybe that’s what got to Percy. Cassandra was his younger sister. Yes, she could obviously take care of herself now, she was strong and had lived years without him there, but he was her older brother. And she was scared. And he was angry. “Whitestone is our home. The people of Wildemount are our people. And there’s two of us now. We can’t stay here in Tal’Dorei forever, this isn’t where we belong. If we stay here, they’ll keep coming after us anyways. If we go back, we have a chance of making things the way that they were.”

“Percy, what are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting we take back Whitestone.”

 

What came after was an argument. First on if they could take it back at all, if they should go to the Emperor. And when it was decided then Cassandra said she would go too. And that was the beginning of a second argument. Percy did not think it was reasonable or safe for them both to go. Cassandra said she lost him once to the Briarwoods, she would not lose him again.

Cassandra, unsurprisingly, won.

They were going to leave in the night, and Gilmore mentioned how he felt a little terrible for the trouble that guard was going to be getting into again. And Vax got everything they needed ready while Cassandra called in favors to get them an airship.

And Vex went to Percy who was donning his worn jacket. “I’m sorry for everything,” Vex said softly.

He didn’t look up at her. “I’m glad you ended up being right. I found the family I was looking for. And once we are done here I will make sure you get what you were looking for as well.”

Vex nodded and said, “I—I just want to be back home with good people taking care of our home again. I don’t want a reward. I’m just glad to know that after all these years I was finally able to bring you two together again.”

And then came another nonmemory, a thing of knowing, and his hands froze on his jacket. “You were the two servant children…the ones who opened the wall…who got us out of there…”

Vex refused to meet his eyes. “It was a very long time ago.”

“You saved us.”

“Percy—”

“Vex’ahlia, why didn’t you say something? Even if you thought that I was a fake it would have made your story more believable.”

Vex knelt down to scratch Trinket between the ears. “Because it was our biggest regret, leaving you two alone. We thought it was our fault. And when I saw you in the market I thought, what a perfect man for the con, he doesn’t even have to act. And if it all worked out you would have the family you wanted and we would have the money we wanted. But…but you told Gilmore about the escape and I knew it was really you. And that it changed things, Percy. I wanted money because people were fools to believe us, because what we do is an art and we are paid better than any artist you’ve ever met. But well,” she almost smiled, “it’s not art anymore. I didn’t have to do anything, and Vax and I agreed that…well we only take money we earned, even if it was money others didn’t want us to earn.”

“You could have told me,” he knelt in front of her.

“It didn’t make sense, it didn’t change anything. After this, well we’re different classes of people, Percy. The servants who saved you don’t matter, whether we saved you then or now, it just matters that the de Rolos are together again.”

“You told me something not long ago,” his hand itched to touch her cheek, “that I outclassed all the nobles you’d met. Vex, you’re worth more than any single person I’ve ever met and any noble I will meet. You’re a different class of person because you are…you are more than the gods themselves. You are kind, smart, driven, and so much more. You are—”

Vex looked away, doing her very best to hold herself back from him, “Darling if you keep talking about me like that I’m going to think you’re falling in love with me.”

“And if I am?”

Her eyes snapped back to him. She meant to say something, anything. To reject him, to ask what he meant, to tell him she felt it too, to just say something. But the words didn’t come. And after a few moments where he waited for her to tell him to fuck off, he finally touched her cheek. He felt like it was a sin almost, his rough fingers brushing her soft skin. She was Vex’ahlia and he was just Percy, who was he to have her like this? Like anything?

And then he kissed her, because sin had never stopped him before.

And to say there was sparks or that the world stopped or that he felt fire where her hands grabbed him to pull him closer or that he forgot who he was for a moment would have been a lie. There were no sparks, just Vex and her pulling him closer and him drawing her to him and he knew exactly who he was. He was only Percy with the single most wonderful woman on the planet. He was positive of that. There was nobody on this earth that could rival her, and even the gods themselves would be hard pressed to challenge her.

Nothing had been clearer to Percy in his life. He was kissing Vex’ahlia in a palace with his sister and Vex’s brother preparing to sneak them out to take back his home. His life was…he hadn’t even secretly dreamt it would be like this.

And then Trinket made a grumbling sound and pushed at Percy’s shoulder to stop them. He looked up at Percy with what he couldn’t deny was a confused face and then lightly pushed at him again before pressing his head against Vex to get her to pet him again.

She smiled and scratched him behind the ears and glanced at Percy. “To be fair, it’s not just you. He also thinks he’s more important than Vax when he wants to be pet.”

Percy chuckled, “Is he wrong?”

“Vex, Percy, what are you doing on the floor? We’ve got to get going,” Vax poked his head in the doorway and waved his hand for them to hurry up.

“Of course,” Percy nodded and stood up. He held a hand out to Vex and she let him help her up. When Vax was gone again he said quietly, “We can talk about this after we settle in back in Whitestone.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said.

And they went back to work.


	12. Land of Yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Cassandra just want things to go back to normal. So do the Briawoods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know I said I'd post this sooner but uhhhhhh I'm the worst and have been busy and dealing with a lot. I'm gonna try and post the next one next week along with the random pairings that I'm working on for the event thing. Thanks for sticking with me even though I'm the worst. We're almost done! I might just do the epilogue I had in mind instead of the wrap up chapter and the epilogue, they are both planned to be pretty short either way. Hopefully I won't be as terrible in the future but also I can't promise anything because this is a reoccurring problem.

The trip back into Whitestone was surprisingly easy. Probably in part because Gilmore and Cassandra had the resources to get anything they wanted without it being faked, or it was the best fake the world had ever seen. There was a new train running, it had to go out and around to avoid the repairs on the bridge, but it was less than a day’s trip around.  
Time seemed to fly and it felt like mere minutes until they were standing at the train station in the cool Whitestone air. Cassandra and Percy wore hoods to cover their hard to miss hair, Gil had dressed down and still looked like royalty, but even the three of them had a hard time finding Vex and Vax in the crowd. They blended into Whitestone like they had no reason not to. Even the bear was hardly noticeable, it looked like a large, round dog beside Vex.  
They went back to Vex and Vax’s house on the edge of town, exactly as the left it, and there they began to plan.

“Sylas,” Delilah leaned back into her husband’s hands as he worked the tension out of her shoulders. She was sitting on a chair in front of him, her eyes closed in bliss and the curve of a smile at the corners of her lips. “you spoil me, dear.”  
A throaty chuckle came from him, it sounded unnatural, like trees cashing in the forest while you camped, rough and unexpected and likely from a dangerous animal lurking in the dark. “It is purely selfish desire, my love. It helps me to touch you.”  
She hummed happily and tilted her head down for him, “Then be selfish.” Her eyes slowly opened and she looked up at the space in front of her.  
A woman was kneeling on the ground before them, dried blood in a thin line from her lip to her chin, dirt and scratches painting her face, her gray eyes glaring up at them with something guarded the Delilah found almost admirable. One hand had a manacle around the wrist with a long chain that connected to her feet to keep her from doing anything stupid while she was lead from the dungeons to Lord and Lady Briarwood. The other arm ended at the elbow and her jacket was tied into a knot to keep the loose fabric from getting in the way. “I prefer the brand of selfishness Sylas indulges in more than yours, I have to admit.”  
Anna Ripley’s face was blank when she answered, “I was not being selfish, Lady Briarwood. I was close, very close. And now we know where he is, he’s with his sister in the palace. If you allow me to go after him I can have them both killed before there is even a celebration for his return.”  
Sylas’s thumb rubbed at the base of Delilah’s neck in small circles. “How many chances have we given her?”  
“For this task alone, two.”  
“They do say the third time is the charm,” a smirk played at his lips and Ripley could feel the beginnings of that cold, dangerous laugh building inside of him. To her credit she did not let the shiver that ran down her spine show.  
“Why send someone three times when you can do it yourself once?” Her voice was so light and carefree that it almost didn’t register to Anna or the guard with his back to the door while he watched Ripley’s every move. “We let those guards go after him the night they ran, we’ve scoured the city for him for years, we sent the brilliant doctor after him with the very power of Vecna in her hands twice, and she returned twice with nothing.”  
Sylas kissed the top of her head, his hands laid still on her shoulders, and his eyes flicked up to look at Ripley. They were so dark they looked black, and his voice was harsh and cold as steel when he said, “You’re right, as always dear. She promised him a life in exchange for her power, she promised him Percival de Rolo, and she came back with nothing.”  
“If I only had one more chance my—”  
Delilah crossed her legs, “He’s grown impatient waiting. And now he knows you’ve failed him. You swore to give him a life, if it is a promise you cannot keep then I will keep it for you.”  
For the first time Delilah could see the way her shoulders stiffened and the muscles in her jaw flexed and became tight, though the rest of her face was still just as impassive. “I will keep it. Not even the palace guards will—”  
“You misunderstand, Anna,” Delilah’s voice was sweet as something deadly and terrible, sweet as honey. “When I say you need to keep your promise, I mean you need to give yourself to him. He’s done waiting, you’ve failed him and now you must face him.”  
Ripley sneered and said, “I got closer than you got in all these years. I saw the boy. I almost had him.”  
“You told me you almost had him two years ago as well, the first time we let you run after him. And it was just some pretender, which you knew. But you asked for His gifts anyways, and you swore to him you would bring him Percival. Because you wanted his power. He has come to collect, Anna. And since you do not have Percival to offer, he has kindly decided to take you instead.”  
“I’m not killing myself for your god,” she said and spat on the floor in front of her. It was perhaps Delilah’s favorite part, this was truly Ripley behind the mask. Anger and hatred and indignance.  
Delilah sighed and nodded, “I understand. Dear?” She looked up at Sylas who still towered over her. “Please help Dr. Ripley fulfill her promises.”  
He brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek, “Of course. I know how much you value keeping one’s word. I won’t be long, I swear it.”  
“Hurry back to me,” she turned his hand over and kissed his palm, “it is utter torture being away from one another when we do not have to be.”  
Ripley’s voice, like venom, didn’t even cause them to break their intense, dark, romantic gazing into each other’s eyes before they were ready, but she spoke anyways. “They why don’t you come with us? See what you’re doing to—”  
“To a friend?” Delilah’s eyes finally slid over to Ripley and her lips curled into a smile. “I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood our relationship if that was how you planned to end it. I would normally stay by Sylas while he sent you back to Vecna’s hand, but I’m afraid I have your sloppy work to clean up before I handle the situation myself. If you were someone who was perhaps more interesting or important to me I would be with you and Sylas for the entire time. However, you are simply predictable, boring, and a power-hungry fool and I have better things to spend my time doing that watching Sylas kill you.” She leaned forward in her chair and cupped Anna Ripley’s cheek with the gentle touch of a friend or maybe even a lover, and in a soft, kind voice she said, “If you had only done what you were supposed to, killed the boy, stopped the girl, even if you had just told us the truth the first time when you took His power, then perhaps you would have lived a long and full life. But,” her hand slipped away and she stood up, “you couldn’t even do something as simple as that. You deserve this, Anna. Your death will better serve us all than your life did. Go to your fate knowing that.”  
And she turned, laid a hand on her husband’s chest and felt the stillness of him under her palm, she kissed him quickly and whispered a few words of love into his ear before she walked to the door, her long red dress sweeping the floor behind her.

“So we have no plan after we break in?” Cassandra’s voice was cool, but not unkind. It was obvious she was clearly not impressed with the plan  
“Well,” It had been Vax’s idea, which was probably why it was so impulsive. Nobody had gone against it because nobody had anything better. “we should really focus on one problem at a time. Vex—”  
She shook her head before he could finish saying his thought, “The people I trust with this kind of information have no way of getting us in. We were pretty careful about not making friends with anyone associated with the Briarwoods. I can think of one, maybe two, who can get us in touch with someone who could help us, but I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.”  
Vax nodded, “We have to be careful who we talk to about this.”  
Percy frowned and said, “Maybe we don’t look for someone close to the Briarwoods, but someone who hates them. You may not remember ways back into the castle, but there’s got to be people who do. People who used to work or live there before the Briarwoods.”  
Vex and Vax looked at each other and said at the same time, “Archibald.”

Archibald Densay, as Percy would slowly remember as they quietly moved through the dark city, was one of his father’s close advisors before the coup. He and Percy didn’t speak privately often, Julius and Vesper were the ones who were of age and most interested in having a hand in the city. Percy was much more involved in his own work and didn’t have much need to go to Densay for advice, but the man had always been there. He had helped find tutors, had sat at many dinners beside his parents, was at every event they put on. He felt like a very private, quiet part of the family.  
Now he lived on the edge of the city, as far from the Briarwoods as he could get, though it was no secret that guards liked to pass by and see that he wasn’t causing any trouble. Which meant getting to his house without being seen was a slow and stressful task.  
When he saw Cassandra and Percy he was in a stunned silence. For a moment Vex thought he might cry when he brought them into a hug and apologized for everything, for not stopping them, for not standing up to them, for not finding Cassandra and Percy afterwards.  
And as much as Cassandra wanted to stay and reconnect and Percy wanted to rediscover his past, there was little time to lose. The longer they stayed the more likely it was that they would be caught. Archibald told them of a way in, a small servant’s door that the new owners likely didn’t know about. It led into the kitchen and from there it would just be a matter of finding whatever it was they were looking for and not getting caught.  
What it was they were looking for was still a mystery, but there was nobody in the city who would be able to tell them the source of the Briarwoods’ powers or if it was even possible to destroy it. Percy hid it well for the most part, but it felt like a suicide mission built on nothing but flimsy hope.  
But sometimes that’s all you have to go on.  
Sneaking in was surprisingly easy. Perhaps it was the entrance they used or the maybe the guards were changing shifts, or, though Percy didn’t count on it, the gods were truly on their side. Whatever the case, for over an hour hey crept around the house without any issue at all. They also didn’t find any hints.  
And then, as things often do around Vax, it all went to shit.  
Vex and Trinket dipped into a room to look for some sort of clue or a sign or anything while Vax led the others to the next room farther down. And Cassandra bumped into a small table against the wall holding a vase. And the vase started to tip towards the floor in comical slow motion. And Vax lurched towards it, his hands outstretched and just barely managing to catch it. There was a moment where no one breathed and not a single heartbeat was had between the three. But there was no sound and no reason for anyone to come running to investigate.  
At least until Vax went to set it back down and heard a door shut somewhere down the hall. He looked away from the table before he let go of the vase and it toppled to the floor and shattered into a million pieces.  
What happened next is better without the details. The guard who was leaving the bathroom down the hall shouted for help and ran down to find Vax, Percy, and Cassandra trying to quickly pick a lock to the door so they could hide. And they were taken to the Briarwoods without much kindness.  
There Percy and Cassandra saw their family’s murderers for the first time since that night so many years ago. Percy could taste the iron in the blood that pooled in where his gums met his teeth from the busted and swollen lip that one of the guards gave him. He could also feel the bruise blossoming on his left side. But when he saw Lady Briarwood adjusting Lord Briarwood’s tie he felt fire and acid and pure hatred rolling inside of him. And no small amount of fear.  
He was only grateful Vex wasn’t here. Perhaps she could still get out of this place.  
“Percival,” Delilah touched her husband’s cheek and kissed him quickly before she turned to look at her guests, “and Cassandra. If I had known you would come to us I wouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to get you back.” She waved at the guards who had brought them in, “You may leave, return to your posts. We are entirely capable of handling our guests.” She then looked at Vax who simply glared at them. She smiled and one slim finger touched his chin and turned his face to one side for her to look at his profile. “You sure do keep attractive company now, Percy,” she said with a light smile and Vax jerked away from her hand.  
“Careful, he bites,” Percy’s voice was snide and there was a slight curl to his lip.  
“You de Rolos always liked the feisty ones, didn’t you? Always wanting to fight. We’ve had to squash, what,” she looked at her husband, her hand drifting towards his and linking their fingers together, “three attempted revolts? And now you show up here. It was a grand final attempt, I will say that.”  
“And final it will be it will be,” Sylas sneered. The fingers of his free hand twitched at his side.  
“Why? Why did you do all of this?” Cassandra asked. Percy forced himself not to glance over at her. He didn’t know her well, not anymore, but he could feel it in his bones. She was stalling, and as long as she was making time Percy had a chance to think.  
Delilah paused and the careless demeanor vanished for a moment. Vax could see her fingers tighten around Sylas’s for a moment. “They did not appreciate the lengths I went to for my husband.”  
Percy arched an eyebrow, “I doubt you were just trying to buy him a gift.”  
The sound that came from Sylas sounded more like an animal than a man, but the tension started to leave his shoulders when Delilah rubbed her thumb along his hand. “No, it was something much more. My husband died.”  
Vax started to say a snide remark but stopped when he saw the wall open just a crack. He covered it quickly while he looked around the room once again. It looked different now but…this had been the room they escaped through. And that was the secret door.  
“He was killed by a dissatisfied peasant. And I did what I had to do to bring him back.”  
“How?” Cassandra snapped at them.  
Percy’s eyes shifted around the room. It was a library it seemed, shelves lining the walls, a few small stables beside large armchairs. A lamp—Percy paused. Not a lamp. It was long and thin and glowing green. And at the iron base of the glass container with swirling green smoke was an eye. He quickly looked away again so as not to draw their attention. What his eyes landed on next was a set of slim fingers around the door that someone was pushing open. And then Vex poked her head out just a little, just so she could see, and then winked at Percy. He might have laughed if Delilah’s cool voice didn’t start again.  
“None of the other gods would listen, they had all abandoned us. And they have abandoned you,” her voice turned gentle, “Where have they been when you needed them? How many times did you pray only to find silence?”  
Percy’s eyes flicked from Vex to the green vial a few times until she followed his gaze and nodded.  
Cassandra looked away so Percy answered. “I’ve never prayed to a god in my life, and whatever lies you want to spread don’t matter. You slaughtered my family and you won’t be able to manipulate me into joining your side or whatever it is you’re trying to do.”  
She glared at the white hired man and continued. “When none of the others listened there was one that called to me. That promised me my love again. And when your family found out what I had done, what the cost was, they planned to tell everyone that we had killed some of the peasants on our land. They had even sent soldiers to arrest us and bring us to them for trial. So,” she smiled sweetly at the de Rolos,” I did what I had to do to protect the man I love.”  
“You and me both, bitch,” Vex’s voice was loud and strong and even Percy was startled to see her standing a few feet behind them, holding the green vial in her hand above her head.  
There was no ceremony to it, no monologue or chance to let them redeem themselves. Delilah stretched out her hand, screaming no, and Sylas started to lurch towards her the way a cornered animal would. But it didn’t matter. The vial shattered on the ground before either of them could reach her.  
Sylas went in flames, he howled and thrashed and the smell of burning flesh and hair filled their noses and made them gag. And then he fell still, a black, stiff mass on the floor. Delilah went quickly and silently, with their attention so focused on Sylas they almost missed the way the life was sapped from her, the wrinkles that formed on now sagging skin, and the way that quietly, uneventfully, a breath escaped her lips and she didn’t take another.  
Later, when the bodies had to be removed, they would be found hand in hand. They would be cremated and thrown into a deep, dark place that Percy refused to ever reveal. But that would be later. Right now Vex just ran to her brother and the de Rolos to help them out of their bindings.  
The castle would empty quickly. Some who were magically charmed to follow the Briarwoods would stay and help bring new order once they were assured nobody wished to kill them for their unwilling allegiance. The ones who helped the Briarwoods by choice fled and at first Percy would send soldiers after them, but with time he would become better at forgiveness.  
It felt fast, deceivingly easy, and strange for the Briarwood threat to be over so quickly, but sometimes that is how these things go. Besides, it was never about killing the Briarwoods, it was about the peace that came after.  
That was later though. In that moment, when everything was fresh and new and they were free Vex hugged her brother before she untied Percy. And when Percy’s hands were free he cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought his lips to hers and everything was as it should be.


	13. In a Crowd of Thousands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex and Percy remember a childhood memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the prophecy predicted, I am the absolute worst. Thanks for sticking with me you guys, I hope you've enjoyed the ride with me.

Vex’s cheek was pressed against Percy’s chest, resting on her new lover in a new library (the room the Briarwoods had died in had been cleared out and sealed off). She sighed and closed her eyes, happy to nap here with him.

“Did you know me?” He asked after a moment. Memories came back in pieces, usually when prompted by something else, but he knew there would be things that were gone forever.

The question made Vex sit up to look at him. She didn’t have the soft, romantic eyes of someone who loved him without thought, but with something in them Percy respected anyways. She looked like she was studying him, inspecting the different angles and features of him. “I met a boy with your name a few times, but he wasn’t you.”

If it had been someone else he might have rolled his eyes, but it was Vex and he just smiled. “Tell me about it.”

“He had brown hair,” she touched his hair gently, trailed her fingers through it and down to his neck. He leaned into her touch as she continued, “blue eyes like yours. He was quiet too, and busy. He did not have much time to spare for two annoying children of one of his servant’s.” He opened his eyes, regret plain on his face. “I don’t blame him, the others didn’t either and Vax and I liked not being noticed.

“But there was one time where I truly met him. For a moment he was a lot like you. He was supposed to be in the ballroom with his siblings learning how to dance before the Winter’s Crest festival started. But he was in the library. I was lighting the fireplace in the library; Vax and I were racing to see who could light the most.”

“I was reading,” he whispered, mostly to himself with a faraway look. Vex didn’t mind, the point wasn’t to tell him a story but to help him remember.

She found his hand and laced their fingers together, “He was reading something. I never asked what.”

Percy’s voice was barely a whisper, “It was about clockmaking.”

“I must have made too much noise or said something, I don’t remember, but he looked up. And he closed his book to watch me light the fire. As I left he asked if I could dance.”

 

“Do you dance?” Vex looked over at the boy who asked her. Percival de Rolo. Her mother had made sure that she knew all of the de Rolos in case she needed to address them.

Vex curtsied messily, not sure if she was supposed to do that but her mother always said it was better safe than sorry. Her mother had also told her to be respectful and be careful about what she said around them, but that lesson didn’t stick quite as well. “Of course I can dance.”

Percy huffed and crossed his arms. He had only turned eleven a few months earlier and the deep frown on his face made him look just like any eleven-year-old, not like a lordling. “It sucks. I don’t even want to go to the ball anyways, so why do I have to know how to dance?”

Vex shook her head, “Because it’s fun. Think about it, all those clothes,” she spun around as if she could imagine wearing a beautiful dress like the ladies did, “and the music, and then there’s the food!”

Percy looked suspicious. “It’s not that great, really.”

“Then you’re just doing it wrong. Dancing is fun.” Vex had always been stubborn and well, Percy had never been able to stop himself from believing her.

“Show me, then.”

Vex’s mother had taught her and her brother how to dance. Perhaps there was no legitimate reason, she knew there was practically no chance her children would go to an event like this where they would need to, but she had no intention of letting her children believe they couldn’t reach whatever goal they had. Which meant that Vex was able to teach Percy how to dance relatively easily, though she didn’t shy away from scolding him when he messed up.

 

Percy looked over to Vex, “You taught me how to dance,” he said with a grin.

She laughed, “You were as good then as you are now.”

He had an intense look, like he couldn’t even dream of looking away from her, “So were you.”

“I think that was the only time you ever noticed me,” Vex answered honestly, though in no way cruelly.

Percy chuckled, “I noticed you everywhere after that day, I just never knew what to say to you. And then the last time we met…I barely even recognized you with everything that was happening, let alone registered who you were. Perhaps things could have been different, perhaps I could have—”

She touched his cheek lightly and made him focus on her. “I have no regrets. We couldn’t have done anything more than we did and if we had all run away together things wouldn’t be like this. I like this, Percy. I like who I am now and I like who you are becoming and I like being home in Whitestone and I like that we saved all these people. And I like you.” She kissed him.

“No regrets?” He asked when she pulled away.

“Well, perhaps I would have taught you how to dance better.”

He shook his head and stood up. He held his hand out to her, “Show me now.”

And she danced with him again.


	14. The Countess and The Common Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex and Percy tell a new version of their story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I feel like I want to say a lot? As I often do? First, I was going to name the title The Count and the Common Woman or the Count and the Common Con or something that looked like it fit in a more obvious way, but let's be real this is how they feel (especially Percy) in their heart. For most of the story they believed Vex had noble blood and he was average and Percy has always believed her to be just a different class of person in a very romantic way, and in a very romantic way she has always believed him to be the same class as her without regard to his official status. So this felt better. Also I'm the author and I do what I want. The song is different from this chapter, it is a different recap of a different love story in the musical, but I found it a fitting title anyways because of the basic gist. It's a retelling of a love story. (Also it's one of my favorite songs from the musical.)
> 
> But now I want to say thank you. The last few updates have been really hard for me to do considering how much I liked this project and how much I already had done, and it's been great to finish another project and to know people were interested in seeing where this little mashup would go. I hope you guys had a little bit of fun, I know I loved it dearly. Anastasia has always been one of my favorite movies and Critical Role is a favorite show of mine and Percy and Vex, as silly as it sounds, mean a lot to me and are one of my favorite fake couples, so I'm glad I could bring everything together like this and that it felt like it worked better than I thought it would.  
> Thank you all so much and I hope you find so many more fics you love and want to read to the end. I wish you the best and I'm glad you stuck it out with me even when life got in the way of work.

It took a few years for people to get on board with beginning the grand Winter’s Crest celebration again. Years of the Briarwoods’ reign and the still too fresh memory of what had happened the last time led to the first few celebrations being a little quiet and lackluster. Travelling merchants were not as common in the area and nobles that were invited were hesitant and didn’t stay the full week. Vex and Vax’s father came a handful of times and seemed to have newfound respect for them, especially after Percy put him in his place with the ease of a man born into a noble house. But the people of the city were understandably nervous to get into full fair mode.

But after a while things began to go back to normal. Perhaps the biggest reason was two months before Winter’s Crest a baby was born. Percival the Fourth. There was suddenly new life that year. The summer Percy and Vex had gotten married there was a shift for the people, but this was something completely different. Everyone had gifts, everyone danced, everyone sang and played and visited Lady Cassandra, Lord Percival, Lady de Rolo, and of course the new baby.

And then two years later Vex had twin girls. And three years after that Vex had another set of twin girls. Percy could not have been more thrilled every time. He was meant to be a clockmaker, a husband, and a father. And when their youngest girls were almost six and they were having their last private night before their guests began to arrive for Winter’s Crest, life was better than either had ever expected, hoped, or even dared to dream.

“I hate dancing,” one of the older girls, Alice, grumbled from a chair with a book in her hands. Percy smiled and looked at his wife with something secret and loving.

“I think dancing can be a lot of fun,” Vex said as she danced with Elaina, the other twin. “Your father and I did it the first time we met.”

Penelope, one of the younger twins who was in Percy’s arms as he spun her around, giggled and said, “Tell us the story again!”

Their son glanced up from his place at the piano, he knew how to dance well enough to skip the lesson and had very little interest in it, but he loved music. He knew the full story, the dark and terrifying parts that weren’t changed slightly to keep the children from having nightmares. He didn’t say anything but it made Vex feel like he was growing up far too fast for her to keep up.

Their other daughter Isabelle jumped off of Trinket’s back (he had been walking around the ballroom to wherever to pointed him to go) and ran up to Percy and held her arms up to him. And because he could never tell his children no to something so small and so loving, he shifted Penelope to one arm and picked Isabelle in his other and swayed with both of them in his arms. “It happened in this very castle during a Winter’s Crest long ago. There was an evil woman with an evil husband,” he dropped his voice and made an exaggerated frown, “and she stormed into the ballroom and scared everyone away. And your mother and Uncle Vax found me and Aunt Cassandra running away and they helped us escape the castle.” Freddie changed the music to something a little spookier for the ambiance.

Alice put her book down to listen to the story again. Vex realized soon she would be ten and that long ago she and Percy had decided to tell their children the truth of the story when they turned ten. Suddenly it felt too soon as she twirled Elaina under her arm. “And Aunt Cass jumped on a train and went to Emon like your father told her, and he fell down and hit his head and forgot everything about who he was and the people who scared everyone away, and all about me and Uncle Vax.”

“And years later when we were grown ups we bumped into each other again and she knew who I was even though it had been so long and she took me back to see my sister. And then we came back here and scared off the evil people forever so they would never bother us again.”

They had a longer version, still soft enough for the kids but longer for when they wanted the details. But this version was short and sweet and good for learning to dance in the ballroom. “And when everything was over he asked me, ‘Oh dearest love of my life,’—”

Percy laughed and set his girls down to walk over to his wife. He bowed to his daughter Alice who let go of Vex’s hands so Percy could sweep in and begin to spin and twirl across the floor with Vex’ahlia. “Oh dearest love of my life, I still can’t remember everything. I feel as if I have known you all of my life, surely we must have met before.” He said dramatically, but his eyes were full of the softest love the world had ever known.

“And I said, ‘Oh sweet Percival, of course we have. When we were children, before Winter’s Crest, you decided not to go to your dancing lessons. And you told me how much you hated dancing and I told you how much I loved it.’ And then he stood up—” Vex spun away from him, their hands stretched out and still holding on to one another.

“And I said, ‘Dance with me again, dearest’ and she did. And when we finished I asked her to marry me,” he pulled her back and she spun back to him until her back was pressed against his chest and his chin on her shoulder as they swayed back and forth.

“And of course I said yes.” The light glinted through the stained glass behind them and cast colorful light around the room and on them.

“And then we danced some more.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just really really love Anastasia and I don't think I've seen a couple more suited for an Anastasia AU than Perc'ahlia is. This is one of my top three movies and this is one of my top three couples, so after a very long time of talking about it and thinking about it I decided to write it. If you're not into it, I get it, it's pretty niche, but that was the nice thing about writing it all ahead of time. I got to write it for myself and I even got to do some very short chapter I would normally feel bad about posting.  
> Anyways, I know this is super unoriginal and uses a lot of very close quotes and scenes, it isn't until the end that things are a bit different, but also the reason I wrote this is because I love the movie so much and I thought they all fit in this AU so well that it didn't need much doctoring. So I don't really feel bad about it being exactly what you already know it's going to be. I just hope you like it, I guess. And if you don't, I did, so there's that? I'm trying to be better about writing for myself.  
> Anyways, thank you so much for just getting this far and I hope if you don't like this you find something you do like


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